Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I respect the Chair and I will be very brief. There is no problem with the modern arrangements or the modern leaseholds. However, the bulk of the schools in built up areas to which I am referring predate those leasing arrangements. In my constituency schools were unilaterally closed down and the Department told us at the time it had no lean or control over that.

The Minister does not know a great deal in regard to this matter, and it is not his fault. We do not have a proper inventory of who owns what, the terms and conditions and so on. Therefore, the Minister's remarks are insupportable. Ownership, control, rationalisation and maximisation of the use of the infrastructure of our schools is critically important from the point of view of the Minister for Education and Science.

As a first step, I suggest the Minister should explore the possibility, not of the closure of schools, but of the orderly transfer of ownership in a reasoned way from religious teaching orders. My question is confined specifically to religious teaching orders, which are subject to a time clause of the State. This would ensure we safeguard the infrastructure of the schools on the one hand and respect the real needs of these declining religious teaching orders and their communities.

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