Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

The Minister says it is preferable to keep pupils, parents and boards of management in the dark and not publish a large list. This is only preferable for the Department and not for parents, teachers and pupils. The Minister of State must know of the frustration among the community in terms of the schools building programme. Nobody expects every school will be modernised tomorrow morning or next week, but we need an indication to be given to communities throughout the State as to where they are on the list and when they will be provided with a timeframe for the work.

I do not believe the Minister knows the information. When my party asked a parliamentary question with regard to the number of prefabs being used as classrooms, she did not have that information. When we asked how many schools were rat infested, she could say that six were reported, but acknowledged that many more were. I question whether the information is available. Is the failure to produce a list and the keeping of schools in the dark a way of hiding the Minister's lack of accountability?