Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I jest. The last Government's biggest crime was the way it mistreated teachers and dealt with the voluntary aspect of teaching. The then Minister, Deputy Woods, downgraded teachers and made them feel bad about themselves. The last straw for teachers who gave up a lot of time voluntarily after school hours, invariably unappreciated by parents, was the way the Government annihilated them. The situation became farcical when those hired to supervise in secondary schools got paid more money than the amount teachers were looking for originally. There are questions to be answered in that regard.

I compliment the religious orders. But for them, many schools would not have been built and maintained. We live in a multi-ethnic society and we will face severe difficulties in schools in the coming years, if not already, when we will have children from different backgrounds, nationalities and denominations. We need to look at the role of the religious in education and at whether it is time for the State to take over schools completely. How can we accommodate the needs of a modern multi-ethnic society? It is a serious question to which I do not have the answer. We should have a debate in the House at a later stage on that issue.

The Minister of State referred to rodents in schools. I am thinking of a school in Carlow with a dedicated principal who ensured through vigilance that there were no rodents in the school, but her reward was that work on the school was deferred. There are two ways to look at this. Does a principal let a school become run down because it might help their case? Some have done so and the schools were refurbished far more quickly.

Teachers welcome the publication of the lists but they would like to know how schools are selected. What is the criterion? Is it purely political? What are the conditions? The Minister of State might include that on the website to let schools know how they are chosen. Most teachers are reasonable people and they would like to know when they can expect something to be done. To say sometime in the future is too vague. They would like a timeframe, whether six months or one or two years, because it would give them something to work towards.