Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have listened intently to the Minister. It is obvious there was no good news to be announced this morning because the Minister's Fine Gael Cabinet colleagues are not here.

There is an absolute crisis in the Government. I do not think the Minister understands it. From start to finish, we have had months of this in terms of the leaving certificate. It is unbelievable that the Minister and his colleagues in Cabinet would think that it was okay to sit down at a Cabinet meeting and not discuss the leaving certificate issue. The Minister is either saying it was not important enough or he did not get the gravity of what has happened.

The business of the week was being discussed. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, or the Minister with responsibility for further education, Deputy Harris, was not even in it. Does the Minister realise that whatever words he is using, his actions are telling people a much different story? This is without the 10,000 prior leaving certificate students who we were told there were no places for but suddenly there are places for them. It is an absolute shambles. I feel sorry for the Minister that he has been left defending this.

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