Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I will give an example. If we put together a pool of teachers in County Kildare who are qualified to teach a specific subject, the principal of a school in the county that needs a substitute teacher of mathematics or geography can get a suitable teacher from that pool and thereby ensure the pupils in the school do not lose out. The same thing could be done in the case of oral examinations. Rather than taking teachers out of class to do an oral examination in another school, perhaps we could but in place a pool of retired or newly qualified teachers who would do oral exams in our schools. That would ensure classrooms are not disrupted. I ask the Minister to take that on board.

It has been suggested that the educational disadvantage committee was a quango. That was not the case. It was established specifically to report on disadvantage in education and it did so very quickly. Its report was acted on by the Government at the time. Many of the quangos in the Department of Education and Skills need to be amalgamated or abolished as quickly as possible. When I spoke in the House the other day about another quango that is being abolished, I said we seem to be a little slow in reducing the number of quangos. I am sure a single quango could do the same job as three or four of the quangos in the Department of Education and Skills. I hope the Minister will consider taking that on board.

I welcome the Bill. The Minister is acting in a proactive manner. I will support him as he continues to make progress.

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