Seanad Report: Rejecting a claim that Dr Michael Woods, as minister for education, had been complicit in activities which had in effect put children's education at risk, the leader of the House, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, said she thought that Dr Woods had made his position publicly clear last Monday.
Responding further to Opposition allegations that the public had been misled over the school- building programme during last year's general election campaign, Mrs O'Rourke said: "I also wish to make it very clear that he had his money when he made his pronouncements."
Mr Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, said that one of the reasons why the Freedom of Information Bill had been debated so vigorously in recent times was that the previous legislation had provided an opportunity to see behind decisions made by government.
Calling for an urgent debate on the way the building programme had been handled, he said that if public policy had been determined primarily on the basis of politics at the time of the election, it was a scandalous situation.
Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said that at a time when there had never been such chaos in education, the House should debate the Department of Education and Science statement of strategy for 2003-05.
There had been a huge reaction on the Government side of the chamber a few months ago to a casual remark by Mr Ulick Bourke (FG) that misinformation put out at the time of the 2002 election had led to a loss of seats by a number of TDs, including Mrs O'Rourke.
If Dr Woods had had the money at the time to do what had been promised, he would like to know what had happened to it in the meantime, Mr O'Toole said.
All politicians had been affected by what had happened in relation to commitments that had been given to various communities.
"We're all accused of telling lies to the electorate."
On the controversy surrounding the possible reintroduction of third-level fees, Mr O'Toole said he would be approaching the PDs to ask them if they would support an Opposition motion due for debate tonight calling on the House to oppose such a move.
Mr Bourke said that emerging from the present confusion "we have the building unit of the Department of Education being replaced by an emergency response unit."