Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I am in agreement with the statements of many Senators on the lists of feeder schools which were published yesterday and the farcical situation which has developed with regard to them. On close examination of the lists published yesterday in The Irish Times, I noted that one school which is known to me had a figure of 50% of its pupils going to third level institutions, despite the fact that the school has been closed for the past two years.

This is a list for the academic year 2004-05. All I can make out of it is the person who undertook the initiative in the first place is totally unaware of the reality or else misinterpreted the figures presented. If the statistics sourced under the Freedom of Information Act indicated that a student was enrolled in one school and went to another school for the final year from which he or she progressed into a third level institution, that means the whole thing is farcical.

These statistics clearly highlight the divisiveness within the educational system, whereby certain what are termed "top schools", fee-paying and otherwise, particularly in Dublin, are providing no facilities whatever for people with special needs——