Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for anticipating that a great deal of concern and anger would be expressed today on the floor of the House at the revelations contained in the tapes that have been broadcast which came into the possession of the Irish Independent concerning the executives of Anglo Irish Bank. We would all share the grave concern and anger that everyone is feeling on hearing the content of those tapes but I think we all agree that it is imperative that there is a robust inquiry into the background to the tapes and the events around the tapes. It assists us now in knowing that these tapes exist and that there is this method of establishing, to a greater degree of certainty, what was really going on around the events of the dreadful bank guarantee in September 2008. If there is any positive to be taken from this it is that we may have greater assistance and there may be more objective material available to assist in proving what happened than we had previously thought. That is a positive. It is not only a robust civil inquiry we require of whatever type, be it a commission of inquiry or an Oireachtas inquiry. It is also important that the Garda and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement are given every resource necessary to enable them investigate any criminal offences that may have been committed.

I welcome the announcement today by the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, that the level of resource teachers available to students with special educational needs will be retained at 2012-13 levels. It is a good day for special education, which is an area the Labour Party has passionately defended since coming into office. It is welcome that the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, has today secured Cabinet agreement to release 500 additional teaching posts to schools this September to cope with the unpredicted rise in the demand for these resources. I know he fought at Cabinet to ring-fence the spending in this area in line with his, and the Labour Party's, long-standing commitment. However, he is also setting up a review, and that is important, as to the reason the rise in demand for special needs resources of 12% is so much greater than the rise in the school population of 1.3%. The review group is to report in a timely fashion in September, and that will be very useful to us in terms of allocation of future resources.

I ask the Leader for a debate on patronage and on increased provision of multidenominational schooling. I know others have called for that previously, and that we have had some debate on this. In that context I want to welcome the announcement by the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, of a premises for the Portobello Educate Together national school, a new multidenominational school opening in the Dublin 8 area. I have been very involved with that. I am chair of the interim board, and we are delighted that we have a premises secured at Harcourt Terrace for that school.