Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I am absolutely dumbstruck by that. This is great stuff. One of the Minister's senior officials told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science before Christmas that the matter would be sorted out within weeks given that this application is now more than two years old. In reply to Deputy Quinn on 22 April last year, the Minister stated that the examination of the recognition process for patrons at second level would be finalised before the start of the next school year and that his Department would be in contact with Educate Together when that had been completed.

Why can the Minister not tell it whether it will be recognised as a patron for post-primary education given the fact this organisation, as I am sure he will admit, is already a well-recognised patron in primary education? Why is it taking the Department more than two years to come to a view on this matter given the status and standing of this organisation?

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