Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Will the Leader ask the Minister for Education and Science to come to the House, or to introduce a scheme to ensure that primary schools are secure? In my county four primary schools have been vandalised by young thugs over the past 20 months. They burned one school to the ground, vandalised and stole from the others. This is an attack not only on the schools but on the community. We must consider tougher security measures such as CCTV cameras outside the primary schools. I am sure this problem is not confined to Donegal but is replicated across the 26 Counties.

I would like to have a debate on the electoral register. The closing date for submissions to the new 2008-09 register fell last week. When it is published on 15 February it will once again be inaccurate because we are not using enough resources to deal with the register in a proper, planned, systematic way. I would like the relevant Minister to come to the House to address these issues to ensure that everybody who is entitled to vote will be on the register in plenty of time to cast his or her vote in the next election.