I welcome the Minister to the House. I know he will thank me for patience in waiting for him. The matter I am raising is a sorry tale about the Minister for Education failing to fulfil a contract to the Dublin School of English to ensure the payment of over £36,000. The Minister will dispute this, but there is an underlying problem with matters of this sort — that small businesses such as the Dublin School of English cannot afford to be bullied by large Departments such as the Department of Education. This bill is undoubtedly in dispute, but the delay in resolving it is unforgivable. The problem dates back to last summer. There have been exchanges of letters. Sometimes it has taken up to three months for the Department to even reply to letters written in good faith by people who are owed as much as £36,000.
I cannot emphasis more strongly to the Minister that a bill of this sort is a large amount of money to a reasonably small business and badly affects its cashflow. The least which can be expected is prompt replies and responses to questions. If there are objections and queries about the Bill, they should be put up front straight away.
In this case the school is out of money since last summer and the dispute appears to be that the Department is implying that the school of English, which taught English to a group of Bosnian refugees last summer, did not supply it with full enough attendance records. As a result, the Department is delaying the payment of this bill. This seems to be the kernel of the dispute.
Unfortunately, in the middle of this problem stands the Refugee Agency. The agency, which has been in touch with both parties, refers every query made to it by the Dublin School of English to the Department of Education, who in most cases refuses to reply. Much of this is a brick wall situation, with delays of months. The school of English has now sent bill after bill to the Department and is now charging interest which will eventually cost public money if it is agreed and settled. However, the delay has continued.
The dispute, which I am led to believe is about the attendance record, is not fair to the Dublin School of English because the Refugee Agency was fully aware of the attendance records at all times. Reports of the attendance record were sent to the agency at all times. There is an attempt to blame the Dublin School of English for some sort of incompetence, of which it is not guilty. The Refugee Agency received reports of attendance and course progress reports. One group of children who were taught English in July and August, 1996, were based in Cappagh, and a bill of £10,000 for that has remained unpaid.
I do not understand that, even if the Department of Education has a case to make, which I do not believe reading the facts, why has it not paid part of the bill and said it does not know how many people attended these courses? Why did they not pay some of it, leave the matter in dispute and resolve it through an arbitrator or some other way? It is unfair to put up a big brick wall. Invoices have been sent to the Department at all times. The Department has implied the school is charging incorrectly, which is completely unfair. The Refugee Agency has been kept informed and there is a case for the Department to answer.
I suggest the Minister puts the boot into his civil servants who are in charge of this matter and ask them why this delay has taken place. They should get on with it, send the Dublin School of English a cheque for amounts not in dispute and resolve the issue of attendance records immediately.
