Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I certainly would not suggest August when the VECs were forced to act under significant pressure. The Department owes an apology to those staff for the manner in which this was done. We all attended public meetings, including Government backbenchers, and no one criticised the policy but the announcement, however, should have been made before August. I phoned the Minister for Education and Science and she washed her hands of the issue. When I phoned the Minister of State's office, no one could tell me who was in charge of the system. There was a complete lack of accountability and transparency. VECs and school principals found themselves in a very awkward situation.

Has the Government learned lessons from this shambles? It is planning a similar move for primary schools in December, a better time of the year, so it should apply those lessons when putting the new arrangements in place. Deputy Michael Moynihan, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Education and Science, was inundated with telephone calls from those across the country who faced chaos. I compliment the staff of the VECs, who were in an impossible situation. We attended many public meetings. This was not an issue in Dublin but it affected every other county. I hope the Department has learned from this episode.

Catchment areas are another burning issue. Some people believe they should be reviewed, and I see merit in that, but I also see dangers because the problem could be made worse further down the line. Parents need some flexibility, however, when children attend the same school, particularly brothers and sisters. We had a crazy scenario in Carlow last year where children sitting examinations received bus tickets while their siblings at the same school, but in a different year, did not get tickets. The issue was finally resolved but it was not handled well.

Who is responsible for children when they have been dropped off at school and before they are collected? At one school in Carlow, instead of there being two buses, one bus operates two runs. One group of children arrives early in the morning and a second is collected late in the evening. There is ambiguity about who is responsible for those children. The Minister for Education and Science has intimated that it is the responsibility of the board of management of the school but it has stated that is not the case. The issue should be examined.

Teachers finish work at 3 p.m and in most schools they invariably stay on after hours and there is no difficulty with that. Some day, however, a teacher who normally stays behind will have to leave and there might be an accident that could lead to a court case or, worse, a fatality. The Department must set out clear guidelines on this and let the boards of management know exactly who is responsible for children before school begins and after it ends.

The Minister of State's speech is 14 pages long but there was not a single mention of the independent audit mentioned by the Taoiseach in the Dáil a few weeks ago. Has that been dropped? Has the Taoiseach rolled back on that issue? Why was it not mentioned in the Minister of State's speech?