Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Senator Leyden spoke about penal reform. We should have a debate on this matter after Easter. Rather than taking up valuable prison space, we should identify some other way for those who are in prison for not paying debts to make amends. He spoke of the terrible accident that befell a lady in Boyle following a shot from a .22 rifle.

Senator Ulick Burke spoke about the three Rs. I have high regard for the Senator because he is a teacher but responsibility for children arriving to class drunk rests with the parents. Would a parent not be aware of a child going to school with drink taken? Where did the children get the drink or the money to buy it? It cannot be put down to anything in the education system and it certainly cannot be blamed on the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey. He will attend two of the three teacher conferences, those of the TUI and the INTO. He will not attend the ASTI conference because they could not work out a format. However, if it was possible in the case of the other two, it should have been possible to make arrangements for the ASTI conference. However, it was not the Minister's fault. He wanted to attend, but not in the traditional format. I have sympathy with him. As I said here previously, it is a real Via Dolorosa. The delegates metaphorically throw things at the Minister. It is not a fun visit.