Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)

I did not interrupt Deputy Healy-Rae. It is disingenuous and it is wrong, morally and politically wrong.

Since I became aware of these changes, as a rural based TD and as someone who attended a rural primary school and who taught in rural primary schools, I have been working to try to bring about changes in the areas that are causing particular difficulty to schools in my constituency and throughout the country. I have been engaging on a regular basis with both Ministers and their offices to try to bring about meaningful progress on this. This is something that has not come from the other side of the House. We have not had any meaningful progress. We have not had any proper alternatives and proposals. All we have had is negativity and bashing of the Government. We have had no solutions. Being in government is about finding solutions and that is what we are hoping to do.

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