The Chief Whip has a proposal.

Is it agreed that the motion be taken without debate?

Together. The question is on whether the motion should be taken without debate. Is that agreed?

I have a very specific question on non-EU fees being charged to asylum seekers and making it completely impossible for them to access third level education.

My apologies as I have only heard the tail-end of the Minister’s reply so I only caught some of it but I welcome it and I welcome that Dr. Catherine Day’s report is going to be published tomorrow. Does the Minister have any idea of the number of asylum seekers who cannot attend university in Ireland simply because of finances and lack of resources? From a newspaper report I understand that three got places in university but did not come under the criteria. I appreciate that he made a very welcome change in August 2…

In my haste, I passed over Deputy Durkan's question. We will return to Question No. 104.

Question No. 1 is in the name of Deputy O'Reilly but will be asked by Deputy Quinlivan.

The Tánaiste will respond.

We are now in an unusual position in that there is nobody in the Chamber to ask the next questions. We have time for one more question. Since Deputy Lahart is present, we can take Question No. 19.

I remind the Minister of State that she is sharing with Deputy Hourigan.

That is what I have on my note.

I am going to hold the time for a minute. Deputy Hourigan will not lose time. There has been some confusion among parties as to who is speaking. Perhaps the Whips could get together on that. I want to clarify for the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, that there is a slot available. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has already spoken so there will be a slot available in 20 minutes. The Minister is part of a group of three people for 15 minutes. I hope that clarifies things for the Minister.

I thank the Deputy for her brevity.

My question is very brief and to the point. Merlin College in Doughiska, Galway is turning away students. It turned them away last year and this year as well. It has been refused an extension. What analysis has been done of the capacity of that school to continue functioning as a school when it is turning away pupils?

I thank the Minister for her reply. I have the greatest of respect for the staff of the Department but something is very wrong with the analysis here. We have been through this with Educate Together in Galway, where there was a battle to show there was a need. Merlin College in Doughiska is a very good school with 650 pupils. Last year, it turned away 70 applicants. This year, it opened its admissions for next year and within two weeks it was oversubscribed. As of yesterday it had 135 applications for 120 places an…

Those are a little like the figures in the budget, in that they are Monopoly figures. This school is turning away students. There is no capacity in the area and students have no other schools to go to. The welfare officer is at the school, trying to find placements for sixth class, and being told to go to Athenry. That is not viable because there is no transport. The school is turning away students. This school was a public private partnership and the one positive aspect of that was that a contingency was provided …

Baineann mo cheist leis an ngéarchéim atá ann ó thaobh cúrsaí tithíochta, go náisiúnta agus go háirithe i nGaillimh, agus an ról faoi leith atá ag polasaithe agus beartais tithíochta an Rialtais, atá ag cothú na géarchéime sin. Today I walked from my privileged accommodation to the Dáil, which is perhaps less than 600 m. I counted 16 homeless people living in doorways. Nine of them were outside the Gaiety Theatre; the drama venue was closed inside while the drama continues outside on our streets. Yesterday the Gove…

The worst thing about this is that with each Government, language means nothing. I hear what the Taoiseach is telling me, but the reality is that the Government is putting more than €1.2 billion directly into the private sector under the three schemes I mentioned. I did not mention other programmes such the help to buy scheme, which the Parliamentary Budget Office has clearly shown did not target the right people. I really tire of this type of language. The Taoiseach did not put money in the budget to rectify the h…

We move to the Rural Independent Group, which I think has three speakers. I think they have five minutes each.

Is it Deputy Eoghan Murphy or Deputy Cathal Crowe?