Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I know. They were extremely troubled and difficult times. I know that successive Governments, including that involving the parties on the other side of the House which was in power for two and a half years, made huge improvements in financial allocations to the Department of Education in the 1990s. There was acceptance at the Cabinet table in the past five years for the various initiatives introduced by the Minister. The parties opposite, when they were in Government, also made huge improvements in the two and half years prior to that. The Minister said that he did not want his budget allocation to be unused at the end of the year. That will happen if it is not used at this time of the year.