I join Senator Paul Coghlan in condemning the mindless act of vandalism on Carrauntoohil. Unfortunately, we are seeing far too many of these types of theft and acts of vandalism around the country. At some stage, we need to have a debate on civic pride and how we can restore it and how to ensure valuable and important monuments such as this are protected and preserved.

I urge the ASTI and the TUI to call off the strike that is planned for 2 December in regard to junior cycle reform. I make my call to enable further discussions on an element of the proposed reform, given that many people have been calling for this to take place for the past 30 years. Most of us would feel the Minister has moved on significantly from the proposals put forward by the former Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. As we know, 60% of marks in the junior cycle will be based on an examination at the end of the third year, while 40% will be based on school-based projects and portfolios. It was a key demand that a State certificate would be issued at the end of the third year. The union leadership has endorsed a day of strikes, but the members - the teachers in the various schools around the country - have not been asked to vote on the revised proposals. Parents and students have welcomed the proposals put forward by the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, as have the school management bodies.

Education Training Boards Ireland has urged the unions to give their full support to implementation of the much needed reform of the junior cycle programme. It has now considered the many concerns raised by teachers and it is clearly in the best interests of students. A strike next week would be of huge concern and cause disruption to students and parents and would not be in the best interests of anybody. I urge the teaching unions, even at this late stage, to pull back and enter into further discussions on possibly fine-tuning some of the proposals brought forward by the Minister.

I ask the Leader to provide time for a debate in the House on farm and industrial safety, given the appalling loss of life we have seen in recent weeks on farms. At the weekend two men lost their lives owing to a tractor tyre. While the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, has taken the issue of farm safety very seriously, having another opportunity to promote the issue even further would be desirable.

I am grateful that Senator Michael Mullins has raised the issue of the forthcoming proposed strike by teaching unions over junior cycle reform. It provides me with the opportunity to indicate in the House that Fianna Fáil supports the principle of external assessment and opposes internal assessment. I commend our colleague in the other House, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, who pushed the Government into making these reforms.

It was not just him.

Senator Paschal Mooney to continue, without interruption.

I did not suggest it was an exclusive effort, but as our spokesperson, he fought the fight from the outset to ensure the junior certificate would be recognised as a State examination. He also pushed actual reform not along the lines suggested by the former Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, but in the manner which has now been accommodated in a compromise by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. However, she has not gone far enough. Senator Michael Mullins called for further negotiations, but my understanding is that the teaching unions are wide open for further negotiations and that the ball is in the Government's court. It is the Government that has made the proposals, but it has failed to go far enough. I say this to the Senator and anyone else. There is outright opposition to the principle of internal assessment.

I commend an article by Fintan O'Toole in The Irish Times today to Members who are interested in this subject. He points to the flaws of internal assessment. I will not go into the detail, but it opens up a variety of scenarios, not least the question of favouritism by teachers or the possibility that a school might watch a neighbouring school to see how its marking was going to ensure they attracted more pupils by adjusting accordingly. This is wide open to exploitation and not in the best interests of pupils. Parents are not totally supportive of the Government's proposals, although I am not at all surprised that the parents' representative grouping has indicated its support, given that it is funded by the Department of Education and Skills. It would, would it not?

In essence, the door to negotiation is open as far as the teaching unions are concerned. Fianna Fáil is not in favour of strike action which would be premature at this stage. I agree with Senator Michael Mullins that the motion put to union members when the decision on strike action was taken did not include the proposals that have been adopted by the Minister in the past couple of weeks. I plead with her to come out again and go further as this issue will not go away. The unions, a large proportion of parents and pupils are opposed to internal assessment One of my colleagues said at our party meeting this morning that he was at a school in his constituency yesterday when the matter was raised not by teachers but by the pupils. I call on the Minister to take another step further and abolish internal assessment. We could then move on to ensure pupils have a properly focused junior certificate examination.

I call for an urgent debate in the House on proposals by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to de-zone large tracts of land around the country, most notably in my county and particularly in Roscommon town. These are the same officials who are dictating to local authorities that allowed for the zoning of these lands in the first place. One case in Roscommon town involved a man who had received planning permission for 166 houses on zoned land. He spent €250,000 in bringing services to the site. At the height of the crash he realised that it was not feasible to build 166 houses because there was no market for them. He decided to extend his planning permission for a further five years. That planning permission is up in less than 12 months, his land will be de-zoned and he will be out of pocket to the tune of €250,000, which is terribly unfair. There is no need to de-zone land because the market will decide the level of demand. We urgently need a debate with the Minister to see whether we can come to some arrangement. Perhaps zoned tracts of land for which people have received planning permission should be left zoned.