With regard to the value for money review of small schools, which the Minister belatedly laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, I ask that an urgent and full debate on that review be held following the break next week. Despite the announcement by the Minister of a minor rowback, the approach of this Government continues to be one of cuts to small schools and the withdrawal of teachers from small schools. I note that the Minister has recently indicated that the only way schools can be assured of funding from the Department of Education and Skills is if they decide to amalgamate or, as she put it, voluntarily come together.

On the POD, perhaps the Minister would tell the House whether she has received an assurance from the Data Protection Commissioner that it is in line with legislation. Also, how can she stand over asking schools to collect information from parents when she or the Department had not up to now ensured that the system complied with data protection legislation?

Hear, hear.

A debate on the value for money report is a matter for the Whips. I have no problem asking that such a debate be organised. I want to reiterate that while the report has been published, the Government has not made any decision to implement any element of it and does not intend to implement anything other than what has already been implemented in regard to small schools, which has been widely welcomed countrywide.

With regard to the database, we have had a secondary database for years, which gathers the same type of information and is very useful in terms of planning literacy and numeracy strategies and so on. We are in continuous conversation with the Data Protection Commissioner to ensure that anything that we do with regard to the primary database is in compliance with our obligations with regard to data protection. It should be recognised at post-primary level that this is a very useful tool which is designed to improve the educational opportunities for children.