Michael D. Higgins
Ceist:9 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Education the up-to-date position in relation to the provision of the new St. Joseph's School, Snipe Avenue, Galway.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway New School.
The preparation of tender documents for the proposed new national school for St. Joseph's, Snipe Avenue, Galway is well advanced and these will be completed at the earliest possible date. The question of the invitation of tenders for the project will then be considered and a decision conveyed to the school authorities.
I welcome what the Minister has said. Is the Minister aware that this was supposed to go to tender last September and has it not yet gone? I would draw the attention of the Minister and the House to the fact that on 24 April I put a similar question down and the Minister for Education gave me the answer which her junior Minister has just now given. Yet, in the following day's Connacht Tribune, her junior Minister announced that the school was sanctioned. Is the Minister telling the people one thing and this House another? I am asking this question from the point of view——
I wish you would ask a question, Deputy, instead of making a statement.
Does the Minister not consider his action degrading to this House? The Minister came in here and gave one piece of information while the Minister of State gave the exact opposite information to the local paper on the next day. That is degrading to the Minister and to me as a Deputy in the House.
That should be adequate. Question No. 10.
It is factual anyway. I have a copy of the paper.
Please, Deputy, restrain yourself.
I did not wish to degrade either the Deputy or the House——
I have the paper.
——but I suggest that the Deputy is all mixed up.
(Interruptions.)