John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his response, although he is only reading what he has been given by officials. We have no officials from the Department here either. This goes back to my previous statement regarding not having a Minister from the relevant Department here. On 4 March I clearly referred to the population of the town as being 7,000 or 8,000 and there is approximately 30,000 in the catchment area of New Ross. That was ignored in the first part of the Minister's response.

There is also a significant discrepancy in the figures read out in the answer. The Minister stated capitation was €535 per pupil, with a typical 500-student school getting €267,500 in 2008. The figures for Good Counsel were less than half of that from two years ago.

My central point is that even going on the McCarthy report proposals, the Good Counsel College is the newest school in terms of its building in New Ross and it is obvious to everyone concerned that whatever amalgamation takes place, the campus of Good Counsel will be used in that amalgamation. It already meets the criteria. As a consequence, surely the Department should invest money to ensure the existing infrastructure does not dwindle away in the next few years. For ten years we have been speaking of amalgamation and for five years there has been direct consultation with the trustees of the different schools, with no agreement.

I understand the Minister's comments in his response but it is not good enough. We need leadership from the Department of Education and Science to resolve this issue as it will clearly not be resolved by the people on the ground.