Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The issue of education has been raised in the House on a number of occasions recently. Senator Ulick Burke and others have asked for a debate on it. I understood that problems with class sizes in primary and post-primary schools were to be resolved during the lifetime of the Government, but an ongoing war continues to be fought on the issue. It has been reported that new schools have been built without playgrounds for the children, which is the antithesis of all educational philosophy as exemplified by the current curriculum. The Department has responded that it is concentrating on building classrooms, but we might as well put children in prisons as put them in classrooms without outside play areas in which they can work, operate, play, enjoy themselves and express themselves.

It would be useful for the Minister for Education and Science to come to the House to debate the Department's unacceptable failure to make such facilities available. When the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, came to the House in recent times to discuss the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, she gave an absolute guarantee that appropriate resources would be made available. Given that the report of the National Council for Special Education, which outlines a timeline for the various levels of support, has been on her desk for the past three months, it is time for her to start looking at those resources, especially as money should have been made available from 1 January. I would like the Minister to update the House on the money and resources which have been made available to the National Council for Special Education as well as the training that has been put in place and the plans which have been developed. A debate with the Minister for Education and Science would be most timely at this point.