Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Will the Leader make time available to debate the schools building programme? This issue is all over the newspapers today and will arise again tomorrow when the Government publishes the Book of Estimates. Last night I attended a meeting of 400 parents and teachers in my parish in Tallaght. The school in question has been on the schools building list for the past 15 years. It was told three weeks before the general election that it had been moved to the architectural stage on the schools building list. There are now 100 schools waiting for the nod from the Department of Education and Science and we learn today that the Government is to introduce savage cuts in the primary schools building programme. This is unacceptable.

I ask the Leader to make time available today or tomorrow for this urgent matter, which will not go away. Government Deputies spent the last general election campaign sending letters to parents and schools making promises which are now nothing more than thin air. Some of these school buildings contain asbestos and we are asking children and teachers to work in an environment which would not be tolerated in other EU countries. I ask for an early debate on this issue.