Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his reply in which he spoke about school accommodation and infrastructure in general. Considerable progress has been made in upgrading and providing new accommodation at primary and second level, as well as at third level in institutes of technology, PLC colleges and universities. The Minister's predecessor, the former Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, published the schools building programme. Will the Minister confirm that this substantial and ambitious programme will be implemented?

The Minister referred to the rationalisation of vocational education committees, VECs. I fully support such rationalisation because there are too many committees. Is it his intention to proceed with this necessary and long overdue measure? If so, does he propose to have the same number of merged entities as outlined by his predecessor?

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