Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Deputy Leader to make contact with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, to invite him to meet the residents of Priory Hall. Dublin City Council is being of no assistance at this stage to the residents who are still, in effect, homeless. Numerous requests have been sent to the Minister by the residents' group in Priory Hall but he has refused to meet them. The residents have written to the Taoiseach but he has also refused to meet them. The Government has a responsibility in the matter. At the very least the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government should afford some time to meet a delegation of residents. I ask Senator Bacik to pass on my request.

I am most interested to note the comments of the Minister, Deputy Noonan, in Germany yesterday and, specifically, why he chose to make the comments he did in Germany. He said he would ensure that there is no private sector involvement for Irish senior bank payment or sovereign debt. That is a departure from what he has been saying up to now. When he went on his much heralded visit to Washington he said he would impose significant losses on some senior bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. He told a meeting of German bankers yesterday that this country would not seek any private sector involvement in sharing the debt burden. Why has a Minister chosen to make significant remarks of this nature outside the Houses of the Oireachtas? What is the Government position on the issue? It is of no great surprise to me because there have been so many U-turns up to now. Could the Deputy Leader confirm to the House today that it is the Government's stated position that there will be no private sector involvement in any debt burden sharing? This is a new departure for the Government. Unfortunately, the Minister for Finance saw fit to make the announcement to German bankers first, as opposed to making it to the elected representatives of the people.

I wish to refer to education, in particular small schools, rural schools, and minority faith schools. I raised on the Adjournment yesterday an issue relating to a Church of Ireland school in my constituency. I seek as a matter of urgency that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, would come to the House for a full debate on education. Not only has the Government effectively increased the pupil-teacher ratio for small rural schools and small schools in the Dublin area and in other city areas, it has been confirmed to me by the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, that by the end of the month there will be an increase in the requirements for permanent learning support within those schools. Any four-teacher school will now lose its permanent learning support post. We spoke in this House and in the other House yesterday about the importance of education, young people and especially those who require assistance in education to bring them up a level. This is a serious departure that has been slipped in under the radar. Effectively, any school with four teachers or fewer that has a permanent learning support post will lose the permanent post.