I have 18 Deputies offering. Will each Deputy just confine himself or herself to a question and an answer? I call Deputy Thomas Byrne.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, said he will be looking at things afresh in his new Department. It appears the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, is looking at the former education Minister's initiatives afresh too. On Thursday, he announced he will take stock and that he felt teachers were suffering from initiative overload. Does the Taoiseach believe the former Minister, Deputy Bruton, did overload teachers and schools with too many initiatives? What does it mean that the Minister will take stock? What implications will this have for the programme for Government and the Action Plan for Education? Are these to be binned and new proposals put forward?

Will Deputies please think of their colleagues? I call the Taoiseach for a short answer.

One of the good things about new Ministers is that they can look at things afresh. Anybody coming into a Department should do exactly that.

Education is one of the areas in which we have seen enormous improvements in the past several years, whether it is new subjects such as computer science or physical education for the leaving certificate, whether it is the introduction of new subjects such as Lithuanian for the junior cycle, whether it is €11 billion secured for the budget next year or whether it is more people from non-traditional backgrounds entering third level education than ever before. There have been really good results in terms of the performance of children in English and maths. If one judges education in terms of outcomes, our teachers, lecturers, schools, universities and the former Minister, Deputy Bruton, have done an excellent job in the past several years.