Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

What the Minister of State said last week was not there was a willingness to use section 37A but that this was a new policy direction and that it was going to be the direction of Government policy, not that there was a willingness to use it as a last resort, as now seems to be the case. I welcome the news for those Dublin 15 families and children who have places, and it is great to have a Tánaiste in a constituency who can bring out the Minister of State to resolve the issue, but would that happen in Dublin 1, Dublin 2, north County Dublin or counties Donegal, Cork or Wicklow? This is a nationwide crisis.

As to what was announced last night, I still do not have the answer to whether these are going to be prefabs, whether there will be pathways to mainstream schools, how these are going to function, what they are going to look like and what distance these children are going to have to travel. This still seems like one of the most brainless, out-of-touch policy responses to a real crisis that has existed here for many years. I am not satisfied, as I was not yesterday. We are not satisfied with the Tánaiste's response. We need answers to those questions. What are these schools going to look like? Will there be real pathways for these children?

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