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

If it was 17 August, it might be appropriate to state that training is being done, that everything is being made ready and that the parents want everything to be right. The latter is something I do not doubt. However, it is 17 October, weeks into the school year, and the Minister is happy to keep telling us about all of this work being done in, I remind the House, the Taoiseach's constituency. What is happening everywhere else? Every child has a constitutional right to primary education, one of the best moves made by Éamon de Valera and the people and parties who voted for and supported the Constitution when it was introduced. The right to which I refer was unrecognised in other constitutions at the time. The 1937 Constitution was visionary. That vision is not being implemented or taken seriously by this Government. We should be here in August, July or June - or a year before, as I suggest in this question, or even five years prior - doing our best to work out the demographic requirements. None of that is happening. Instead, the Minister is acting as if this is an emergency response. Since I mentioned an emergency response, I pay tribute to Dublin Fire Brigade regarding the work it did yesterday.

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