I am interested in hearing the rest of contribution by the Minister. She will probably conclude it in her next contribution. This is a very unsatisfactory process. It was done at the height of the Christmas period. Nobody on either side of the discussion had any faith in how the process was organised. The Minister told me at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science that potential parents would be involved in these processes. How can it be f…

This process is welcome but based on the Minister’s answer, the patron will decide what happens next. Where does the Department come in? Are we going to listen to the voices of parents whose children are not yet in school? The Minister promised me that we would. The parent of a child in sixth class who is leaving the school in a few months has much more say in the future configuration of the schools than somebody who lives locally whose children are aged three, two or one. Is the patron the one who decides? What is…

We still do not have a list of those 58 schools that are experiencing building delays.

I want to ask the Minister about a particular school that has an ongoing issue with its school building project, which is Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in Donaghmede. Can she expedite the building process for this school and will she make a statement on the matter?

I will return to the wider issue shortly. If the Minister was to visit Gaelcholáiste Reachrann she would be taken aback at the poor state of the buildings in which the young people are learning, which has been an ongoing issue for years. It is one of the only Gaelcholáistí on the north side of Dublin and it services quite a number of Gaelscoileanna, including one which I attended, Gaelscoil Míde. The spirit and enthusiasm of the school community is completely undermined by the State of the buildings. I invited the …

A turf or trench war between the Departments of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and Education is of no comfort to those who have concerns about the conditions in which their children are learning. As has been said, to anybody watching in the stark assurance given by the Taoiseach to my party leader, Deputy Bacik, on Tuesday, that these projects will be recommenced this year, is different to the reassurance the Minister has given this morning. The terminology is marked in its diffe…

On a point of order, is it regular for a Government Deputy to contribute without asking a question and to give a statement in support of the Minister?

The Minister is quite able to speak for herself.

There is no question. No question is being asked of the Minister.

He is eating into the time of others.

The Deputy is not asking a question.

The Minister can speak for herself and the Deputy is eating into other people's time.

It is better than having ideas for making people homeless.

Níl. Caitear le chéile é ag an nóiméad deireanach.

Is that the best the Tánaiste can do?

You are doing the wrong thing.

The Government made a last-minute decision and chased after it.

It undermined the Minister of State.

The Tánaiste is obsessed with Sinn Féin.

Hear, hear.