Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

Yes, I have the headline: "Minister's good news for Coralstown school deputation." A deputation, headed by the then Senator, visited the then Minister's clinic and the good news was announced in a blaze of glory afterwards. It is strange that this school is not among the 17 in respect of which progress has been made. How can boards of management, parents and pupils in the other 398 schools in need believe anything that emanates from either the Minister or the Department?

I hope a new beginning can be made and that when the current Minister says he wants to see transparency, we will see transparency. We should have no fudging or dressing up in the lead-in to an election; we should get definitive answers. In the past five years Opposition Members in this House and in the Dáil asked the Minister to tell boards of management what progress could realistically be achieved by schools in need.