Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday was a little unusual in that there was a very long Cabinet meeting followed by an extending of the hand of friendship, or whatever it is, to Jeremy Corbyn to see what can happen in terms of Brexit. I still hope there will not be a Brexit but, hopefully, at least there may be a softer Brexit than might otherwise have been anticipated by the hard Brexiteers. We need to be cognisant of the fact that it is only next week, next Thursday, it all may go wrong. If it does not, the European Council will be meeting this day next week, 10 April, so time is really pushing on. In fairness, the Government probably needs to let us know there are some plans in place just in case there is a no-deal. I know people do not want to scaremonger and that we do not want a hard border but failing to plan is not necessarily the greatest of strategies either.

I want to raise a few other points on which we might need a debate at some point. A big row broke out about school patronage in recent days. We know there is a demand for non-denominational or Educate Together type schools, which I know are not exactly the same but, equally, the process of managing the transition of any school, which is currently a faith-based school, into a non-denominational or interdenominational school needs to be handled very sensitively. The parents of the pupils attending such schools will have sent them there with an expectation of a particular type of education.