I think I dealt with most of the questions raised before Question Time. There is one matter to which I would like to refer briefly and that is the question of the £1.50 Deputy Tunney raised. This is a contribution towards the maintenance of primary schools. I would like to emphasise that this is in no sense a fee, as Deputy Tunney suggested.
It is a formalising of a very important feature of our national school system, namely, the local ownership and local control of these primary schools. It is in no way an innovation to have a local contribution towards the maintenance of a school. In this regard I will quote an extract from a recent circular about this matter.
The sum required to meet the local contribution shall be provided by the parish community or other appropriate analogous community or body from general funds at the disposal of such community or body and there shall be no levy on parents of children attending the school. A local contribution was formalised by agreement at the £1.50 level when the State's contribution was trebled to a level of £6 per pupil.
The total expenditure was raised from about £1 million to £3 million annually. Even with my limited acquaintance with the situation I think the remarks made in this regard were unwarranted.
I would like to thank Deputies who contributed for their patience with my obvious unfamiliarity with my new portfolio. I have been only seven days in this job, but even after seven years I am sure a Minister would not know all the details, complications and problems attached to education. I hope my speed of self-informed information will be considerably accelerated over the next seven weeks, seven months and, please God, seven years.