Tom Shehan (Fine Gael)

I wish to raise two issues. Would it possible for the Leader to ask the Minister for Education and Skills to come to this House to explain why sample papers for Project Maths, which is a new syllabus, were only made available to students last week? It is not good enough that these sample papers only became available last week. Also, students and teachers have expressed concern about the Irish sample papers. I would welcome a discussion on this issue in the House with the Minister for Education and Skills.

This morning, I received from the secretariat of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform a transcript of extracted questions asked by individual committee members at its meeting on 2 September last and matched up corresponding replies received from the various attending witnesses. I asked several questions at that meeting of 2 September, one of which related to the increase in variable rate mortgage repayments to which the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan, replied:

Senator Sheahan mentioned particular investments by the credit unions, which is a matter for another day. We know about these and the background to them. We are also aware of increased repayments on mortgages that have not been restructured because, as Mr. Elderfield mentioned, we have insisted on particular treatment, whereby borrowers are not moved from tracker to standard variable rates. The example the Senator has given is one in which the standard variable rate has gone up. That has been concerning us, but we do not have powers in this regard.