asked the Minister for Education if he will make additional moneys available to enable conventional secondary schools to be crected and operated in working class areas to ensure that the less well-off can exercise a choice between secondary and vocational education for their children as they deem appropriate.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Secondary and Vocational Education.
14.
The regulations governing the granting of financial assistance towards the cost of secondary schools are of a general application and do not enable distinctions to be made between one area and another. The schools are, in effect, private institutions and the initiative in relation to an establishment in a particular area is a matter for the managerial authority concerned.
Would the Minister not agree that apart from what the secondary schools authorities are doing in a very limited way to provide secondary education, it is the responsibility of the Department to get the necessary information and do research in relation to the various areas of this expanding city and to contrive, with all the resources it has, to provide those facilities?
I can assure the Deputy that such efforts are being made and we have all the statistics necessary.
The local Labour Party officials are working hard.