Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I will also speak on a point raised by Senator Fitzgerald, the funding of primary schools. It is a good time to remind the House this Government promised during the election that the capitation grant for primary schools would be doubled but this has not happened. This is the outcome.

Parents and teachers met around the country, organised by the INTO, prior to the last election. Meeting various groups, the Government gave a commitment to the rise but there is no sign of it. Schools are now skimping and scraping trying to make ends meet and managing schools on a shoestring but they are not succeeding. The cannot make available what is supposed to be available. It is time we saw exactly how schools are doing their business and how schools cannot be run on the amount of money available.

There was also a commitment that every school in Ireland would have broadband. I saw a reference two days ago in a publication to the effect that 98% of schools now have broadband availability. I have double-checked that in the past few days. It is ludicrous to suggest that 98% of schools have access to broadband. These issues have been raised with everyone in the House. There should be a priority list of schools designated for building work or new schools this year. It should be open, transparent and available. We should see it when it is published and it should continue. People might not be aware a list is put together one year and if it is not completed, a new list is drawn up the next year with no reference to the schools prioritised the previous year. Everyone in this House has been lobbied by some school or other for information wanting to know where it stands on the list and when the building work is likely to happen. There are nine stages and schools are held back at every one of them, not knowing how to get to the next point or where the blockage exists. It is appalling.