Eoghan Harris (Independent)

I congratulate Senator O'Reilly on his comments about Protestant schools. He literally took the words out of my mouth and his point was well made. There is much idle talk about fee-paying schools, but Protestant schools in regions where their populations are small carry many poor pupils. They are in a special position, even leaving aside the special position they have in the Proclamation of the Republic. The reference to cherishing the children of the nation equally is to nothing except our Protestant brethren North and South. Northern Ireland will watch with great interest what we do in this regard.

Indirectly, this raises a wider question. I approached the Minister yesterday in Cork when he was surrounded by chanting students. I asked him about Protestant schools and he assured me he would look hard at the issue.

Independents should not take themselves too seriously, and while I have abstained until now and voted with the Government, there is a bottom line to my commitment to voting with the Government. If there is no reform of the public sector in the report, I will vote as I please after that on the merits of the matter as I see it. I have one term in the Seanad and I intend to make a mark with regard to reform of the public sector.