Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I request the Leader to reconsider the Order of Business in view of the information to hand concerning the schools building programme. It would be worthwhile for the House to debate the issue and hear statements from Senators and the Minister for Education and Science. One of the reasons the Freedom of Information Bill was debated so vigorously by both sides of the House was that it gave us an opportunity to see the reasons behind the decisions made by the Government. It has now come to light that the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, was complicit in a range of activities which, in effect, put children's education at risk.

The decisions taken by the Government before the last general election were scandalous. We now know that in January 2002 the primary school building unit of the Department of Education and Science highlighted to the then Minister the misleading slant on the information purporting to come from the unit, the authority of which was totally undermined. In February 2002 the then Minister was warned about the information he was sending to Fianna Fáil backbenchers. The building unit asked him to ensure the language was changed to avoid negative wording.