Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The educational welfare service of Tusla and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs urgently needs to be brought within the Minister's Department. Educational welfare officers are finding issues on the ground; they are definitely finding them in Ashbourne, as they will tell the Minister. They are receiving representations from my clinic and I am sure from those of the Minister's colleagues. The service should be within the Minister's Department in order that it would know first-hand from the individuals in question where the critical points were and why a first class or a third class in a school was full. In general, there may not yet be a problem in finding places in junior infant classes in some cases. As I said, the houses being built are four-bedroom detached dwellings in many cases. This presents a real problem. The Department has a long history in that regard and knows all about this problem. It had to deal with a crisis in Laytown, which was the first political issue on which I worked just before I was elected to the Dáil with the late Deputy Shane McEntee. The issues that arose there appear to be beginning to arise again elsewhere and I am disappointed that the Department does not seem to have learned the lessons. That crisis is seared in my memory and I will certainly do all in my power to prevent such an issue from ever arising again.

See this speech in context