Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

On a procedural matter, since you became Ceann Comhairle, Sir, one of your initiatives has been to improve access to the House and it has been a success for which you deserve credit. However, it has been brought to my attention that many schools intending to visit the House have had to cancel their visits planned for next year because of the Government's decision to get rid of substitution. Could you, Sir, make available to me the total number of schools that visited the House over the past number of years because schools are cancelling their visits next year as a result of the Government's decision to get rid of substitution from 1 January 2009?

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