Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

As he noted, several pages are devoted to the issue today in a certain newspaper. The Minister for Education and Science appointed up to 500 special needs teachers on the premise that they were needed for those who were least academically inclined and required special help. I believe everybody is glad of that. Special needs assistants are available in every school for every child who needs them and special teachers are also employed, so we will hopefully be able to make progress on the pupil-teacher ratio. However, I receive letters which describe alarming class sizes. The conditions seem most harrowing, even when compared to my own time. We will endeavour to have the Minister come before the House to debate the issue.

Senator Mansergh referred to the reopening of the WTO talks and noted that some in the media claim agriculture no longer matters and that we should not have a separate ministry for it. That will not happen in Ireland, irrespective of who enters Government. The Senator also mentioned the report compiled by the Trinity development initiative at the IIIS, which suggests that CAP reform will not help smaller or poorer countries. That is amazing, given that everybody is of the opinion that reform will be of benefit to such countries.

Senator Norris raised the issue of the concentration camp-like conditions in which turkeys are being reared by a certain firm in the UK. The turkeys have become so plump through over-feeding that they cannot stand up. The Senator also inquired about the status of his Civil Partnership Bill 2004, which we will endeavour to determine. The Bill is not proposed to be taken in this House within the next few weeks and I have seen no sign of it.