Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an Teach. Súilim go n-éireoidh go maith léi sa phost nua atá aici. Tá sí sé mhí sa phost anois and we expect results. Despite all of the discussions, the 20:1 pupil-teacher ratio commitment set out in the programme for Government will not go away. It will have to be delivered. While I accept the Minister requires time to achieve the target and do not agree that tonight is the right time for a row, such a row is brewing. The Government has committed itself to doing something but has provided no indication of how it will be achieved. I want to hear how it will happen. I intended to table a motion on the issue next month as I thought, having listened to the Minister recently, that she was working on a project, the details of which could be provided to us. Time is running out however.

The Minister is six months into her term of office and schools want to know what their positions will be next year. No matter how much people object to the examples outlined by Senators Finucane and Ulick Burke, they are real problems. The small schools in Galway and elsewhere and the special schools in Limerick will be in trouble even in the context of the provision of the 70 additional special needs assistants to whom Senator Minihan referred.

The background to the provision is that approximately 1,500 schools will lose access to special needs assistants while another 1,500 gain access to them. While 70 extra assistants will be provided in the process, it will be in the context of the absolute chaos which will emerge when Members on the Government side begin to receive deputations from local schools which lose supports. No one understands why that must happen. It is certain to create great anger in schools nationally in the absence of a plan to agree and announce a process to reduce class sizes. People with special needs will not receive what they want, smaller schools will lose teachers and over 1,500 schools will lose their special needs assistants without any sign of class sizes being reduced. It is a recipe for chaos. Someone is leading the Minister into a situation which must be dealt with.

I have been a Member for 18 years and as I continually point out, a motion which in sequence acknowledges, commends, welcomes, supports and congratulates the Government is very difficult for anyone on this side of the House to endorse, no matter what its merits. People should organise things a little better.