Denis Landy (Labour)

That equates to the number of times Senator Mooney referred to the closure of schools in his contribution. Perhaps we are level at the moment.

Senator MacSharry wants to look at the books. His party had the books for 14 years. It wrecked this country. The Senator wants us to allow him to have another look at the books. It makes us laugh. When the late Séamus Brennan drew up a Green Paper for Fianna Fáil, he said we should move towards four-teacher schools as the ideal norm for rural Ireland. We are hearing crocodile tears from Senators Byrne and Mooney and others. We are trying to implement changes that have been forced on us by their Fianna Fáil colleagues. That is the reality of where we are in this country at this time.

Fianna Fáil seems to think it has some kind of grip on, or ownership of, rural Ireland. I would like to inform my Fianna Fáil colleagues that I served for eight years as the secretary of the parents' council of a rural three-teacher school. I served on the board of management of the school for four years. I led a campaign to convince the former Fianna Fáil Minister, Noel Dempsey, to sanction the construction of an extension to the school. My son and 40 other children were using an outside toilet until the Minister listened to our protests, which were aimed at securing normal human dignity for our children. Therefore, I do not need to be lectured about what we are doing with this country's education system. When Fianna Fáil had the money, it destroyed the country. It did not develop this education system when it had an opportunity to do so. My former Labour Party colleague, Senator Ó Clochartaigh-----