Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I ask the Leader to make an immediate request to the Minister for Finance to call on the Revenue Commissioners to indicate clearly the reasons they issued guidelines to lending institutions recently which constitute what can only be described as an assault on first-time buyers. It is difficult for young people to provide for their own homes without assistance from parents or other family members. It is most important for the Revenue Commissioners to indicate why they believed they had to issue their guidelines. Was there a breakdown in the provisions of the last budget on stamp duty as implemented in the Finance Act 2005?

It is an unfortunate coincidence that on the day the Taoiseach is in Northern Ireland where he will make an announcement on affordable housing, another arm of Government is denying the opportunity to young people to provide a home for themselves with some assistance from family members. I ask the Leader to do what is necessary, whether it is to ask the Minister for Finance to ask the Revenue Commissioners to explain or have the matter dealt with by a committee of the Houses as a matter of urgency, to protect young people who will lose from €10,000 to €15,000 on average from the stamp duty relief benefit.

As we finish the primary cycle academic year, many national schools are to lose teachers simply because of a statistic while educational need is overlooked. The Minister for Education and Science suggests she will have solved the matter in September, which is of very little use to national school management and principals who are trying to organise their staffing arrangements for the new academic year between now and then. It is unbelievable that being one pupil short of the quota means the loss by a school of one teacher. I ask the Leader to make a formal request to the Minister for Education and Science to deal with the matter urgently and to notify all school boards of management within a month of her findings.