Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is an extraordinarily long reply that tells me very little. The simple question at the heart of this Commencement matter is when will the pathfinder unit be set up? We are six years on from the recommendation and excuses are fairly thin. The Minister of State talks how about the establishment of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has necessitated some further consideration of the initial proposal. That was three years ago. What the Minister of State seems to be saying is that six years on from the recommendation to set up the pathfinder unit, she is not even in the position to tell me when it will be set up.

If that is the case, and it looks to be the case from the answer the Minister of State gave me unless she is able to give me a date in her response, that is an abject failure on the part of the Government. It is an abject failure on the part of the Government that is failing our young - our most vulnerable children and adolescents - and is entirely unacceptable.