Joe O'Toole (Independent)

We will watch with interest to see how that will develop through the party. I will say no more about that because it is not my business.

I do not object to No. 2 being taken without debate but on at least four occasions in the past two years I have raised the implications of the Abattoirs Act and the importance of certain aspects of it in terms of traceability of meat. When the joint committee has concluded its business on the Act I would like the House to have a debate on the impact of local involvement in the approval of abattoirs, which I regard as a positive step. The more localised beef production is the better. The fact that it would come off the land to the local abattoir and be sold in the local butchers is something we should support. I would like to hear a report on that when it comes back from committee.

On several occasions here recently we asked that the Minister for Education and Science be invited to the House to explain a number of issues. I am sure people will have heard the media comment over the past two or three weeks on the cutbacks to The Ark in Dublin. The Ark is one of the most progressive developments in inner city and arts education in many years. It is a place where children are exposed to the arts, arts education is developed and teachers are developed in the arts. In particular, it is a place disadvantaged schools from throughout the inner city area visit to get exposure to the arts and to meet with teachers seconded to it to raise their level of appreciation and awareness. We are talking about a small amount of money in terms of this cutback and it is quite atrocious. Ten years ago, the then Minister for Education, Deputy Brennan, decided to bring forward a Green Paper on education which did not include any aspect of arts but there was outrage and uproar and it was changed immediately. This is a similar step backward. It is a blow to teacher education, arts appreciation, arts education, disadvantage in the inner city and to support for one of the major successes in the Temple Bar area. The most successful initiative in Temple Bar has been The Ark and I ask the Minister to come to the House and explain the reasons he is cutting back on this extraordinarily progressive aspect of education.