Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

That is okay but I want attention because I have the floor.

The gaelscoil in Tramore is fully prefabricated. The staff are doing great work introducing the Irish language to an area in which it has never been before. The board of management, staff and parents are very frustrated because there is no progress. Even if there were accountability and transparency and the school were told where it stands regarding the schools building programme, irrespective of whether building will occur in five years, it would appreciate it. It has been given no word and has not been afforded that respect by the Department. The Minister needs to work on this.

Many public representatives have been lobbied over the cutbacks to the VEC system. I was a member of a VEC for a number of years and was educated through the VEC system, for which I have a lot to be thankful. The VECs are very much involved in communities and have been supported in the past by the Department of Education and Science. They reached into communities that had been neglected previously. Not wanting to sound too negative, I must acknowledge that the VECs have done wonderful work down the years throughout the country. There are serious concerns over how the latest cutbacks will affect their work. I know for a fact that the VECs, their staff and boards of management are demoralised by the cutbacks that have been announced.

The best way to create employment and stimulate confidence in an economy is to engage in productive investment. What better way to have productive investment than to invest in our children and our schools? We should invest not just in buildings but in children's education for the future. It is disgraceful to have cutbacks in this area and I certainly do not support them. I am sure Members on the Government side do not do so either.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Waterford Institute of Technology, which has proven to be a leader in its field. It offers very far-ranging degrees and the lecture staff are very highly thought of. The college applied for university status some time ago and was promised by the Minister's predecessors and himself that a decision would be made soon. Will the Minister put people out of their misery and tell them what he and his Department are thinking? Waterford is the only gateway city in the country that does not have a university. We are exporting our students in that they are going to other regions and abroad to be educated. They are not coming back and the statistics are there to prove it. The south-east region has a strong economic argument for a university because of its high dependency on manufacturing and its higher-than-average unemployment figures.

The Waterford Institute of Technology steps up to the mark in every category the Minister cares to mention. It is a university in all but name but is not being acknowledged and recognised as such by the Government. Has the Minister a date on which he will decide on the college's application? The people of Waterford and the south east have waited long enough and need a university in that region.