Dan Boyle (Green Party)

This is brain injury awareness week. Yesterday, Oireachtas Members had the advantage of a briefing from Brí, the Acquired Brain Injury Advocacy Association, which highlighted that this condition, whether brought on by trauma or following a stroke, is very much the poor relation in terms of both the health service and additional supports. It would be useful to have a debate on the preponderance of acquired brain injury and how those affected are treated.

I support Senator O'Toole's call for a debate on the schools building programme, particularly in regard to its cost effectiveness. The lack of information affects everybody in public life and in the communities in question. Decisions are made on a piecemeal basis. Announcements, if they are made, refer only to the next step in the programme, which is often a nine-step programme, and never provide a full timetable for the completion of any school programme. Temporary measures are in place in too many schools throughout the State. Prefabricated classrooms are no longer purchased but are leased at a cost of €25,000 per year. I am aware of two schools in Cork that have been obliged to avail of these leasing arrangements for ten years, involving a cost to the State of more than €500,000 which could have been used to build a new school in the interim. It is in our interests to ensure there is a more open process and that the cost implications of the current system are more rigorously applied. If the Minister is prepared to accede to our request for a debate, it would be a valuable use of our time.