Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, to the House and thank him for paying attention to the debate. I thank all the Senators who spoke in the debate. These include Senators Keaveney, Healy Eames, Hannigan, Boyle, Buttimer, Fitzgerald, Ormonde, O'Sullivan, Norris, Mullen, McFadden, O'Reilly, Phelan and Burke and their contributions contained a common theme. I refer to the point made by Senator Burke, the Leas-Chathaoirleach, about the design issue. This is not a new idea. Anyone driving around the country will easily recognise a school building, such as the one visited by Senator Mullen in Ahascragh, which are what I describe as the Boyd Barrett-type schools. They were designed by Boyd Barrett in the 1950s and 1960s and are long schools with a water tower to one side.

This is not a new idea. More than 20 or 25 years ago I made a presentation to the Department of Education that there should be a set number of pre-designed schools. I received a contemptuous response from the Department in which I was asked whether I was trying to "bungalow bliss" primary school buildings. People of a certain age will remember a book of house designs called Bungalow Bliss, written by a former Member of this House, Jack Fitzsimons from County Meath. It was a cheap method of sourcing house designs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I understand the Department has made a move in that direction and it has a number of standard plans which it will propose.

I ask the Minister of State to take note of a few points. Politics is being demeaned by this process. Irrespective of whether it is true, people believe that focal sa chúirt is what is making this work. I listened to a man on the radio this morning who spoke about receiving a letter from the Minister before the election stating that a project was going to start and I listened to Senator Burke talking about the sports hall in Castlebar which was promised also in a letter sent before the election, but neither has happened.

I ask my colleagues on the Government side to take note that there is no mention of resources in my motion tonight. I deliberately did not include the issue of resources so that it would not be necessary for people to tell me what the Government is spending. Whether there is €1 million, €1 billion or €10 billion to be expended, the issues I set out in my motion must be dealt with. It is disgraceful that the senior Minister in the Department in her response was not able to deal with the questions of audit — internal and external — of governance or of inventory, except in a passing reference to rented prefabricated buildings. That is the measure of the importance of the motion. It is disgraceful that whoever put the speech together in the Department could not even answer questions on simple issues.

I want to say something else to my colleagues on the Government side. There is no mention of bands. A page and a half of the Minister's speech referred to bands but there was no need for that as the information can be downloaded from the website which contains six pages about the different bands——