Mary Lou McDonald
Question:1. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [20326/23]
View answerTuesday, 23 May 2023
Questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
Alan Dillon
Question:2. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [21425/23]
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Cathal Crowe
Question:3. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22438/23]
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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:4. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22439/23]
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Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:5. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22442/23]
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Michael Moynihan
Question:6. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22444/23]
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Mick Barry
Question:7. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22480/23]
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Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:8. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22820/23]
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Bríd Smith
Question:9. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22823/23]
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Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:10. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22856/23]
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Ivana Bacik
Question:11. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22860/23]
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Gary Gannon
Question:12. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22916/23]
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Paul Murphy
Question:13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [22920/23]
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Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:14. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Children and Education will next meet. [23217/23]
View answerOral answers (17 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 14, inclusive, together. The newly established Cabinet committee on children and education will oversee the implementation of commitments in the programme for Government in the area of children and education, including further and higher education, with a specific focus on child poverty and well-being. The first meeting of the new Cabinet committee will take place shortly. Work has been taking place with officials meeting with organisations and groups ahead of the next Cabinet committee. The new Cabinet committee will enable a greater focus on improving the lives of children in Ireland and giving them the best start possible, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. We believe that through education, we can empower young people. They can develop the skills necessary to build a better life and achieve better outcomes for themselves and their families. I speak regularly with the Ministers, Deputies O'Gorman, Foley and Harris, at Cabinet meetings and I also engage closely with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan.
We are a couple of weeks out from this year's leaving certificate examinations and there is still no certainty about when those exam results will be released. It was anticipated that we would see a return to the traditional mid-August release, but the Minister for Education is unable to confirm whether this will be the case. Recent media comments by the Minister for Education appear to blame the State Examinations Commission, SEC, for not being able to confirm the date. The Minister also cited the second-chance exams and the shortage of examiners, as if these were matters outside of her control. Of the 60,000 students who sat the leaving certificate last year, just 397 students availed of the State exam's second sitting, and the Minister has had 12 months to address any staff shortages. It is also important to note that the numbers sitting this year's leaving certificate exams are only marginally higher, and access to those second-chance exams remains extremely limited. People need to know when the leaving certificate results will be out.
First, I welcome the Ballyheane Women’s Group from Castlebar, who are joining us today in Leinster House and who are in the Gallery.
I raise a similar topic, which is that the leaving certificate examinations are approaching and the dates of when students will receive their results remain uncertain. The absence of a definite release date for leaving certificate results is causing significant anxiety among young students. I have been contacted by several students. Approximately 500 Irish students apply to higher education institutions in the Netherlands and are seeking information on this matter. Unfortunately, for the fourth successive year, the State Examinations Commission has indicated that results may not be available in the traditional mid-August timeframe, impacting the incoming first-year students who will once again be delayed in starting their college courses. While I am aware that the State Examinations Commission is responsible for the operation, delivery and development of State examinations, it is beyond reason why the State Examinations Commission is not in a position to confirm the date for those results. The lack of a specific date heightens uncertainty and anxiety among students. I kindly request clarification on this matter, which is causing enormous issues among students who are diligently preparing for their State exams.
Schools are willing to play their role by providing autism classes. Increasingly, the response from the Department is that they provide modular accommodation. I think schools deserve more and it needs formal investment. I ask the Taoiseach to respond.
We have committed to reducing class sizes in schools on the basis of having one teacher for every 23 students, which I think is historic. I welcome this ratio. Yet, there is a school in rural Carlow that has two new students and this pushes it over the ratio limit. The Department has said it is not entitled to keep and retain their teacher from last year. It is my understanding that the primary staffing appeals board goes on 2022 figures. The school is telling me that even though the Department knows it has the number, it has to submit a new staffing appeal to the June meeting of the primary staffing appeals board. Common sense should prevail. The school has a teacher and it has all the children for 2023. Why is the primary staffing appeals board going on 2022 figures? It just does not make sense. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Foley, about this. This issue is probably across all other schools as well.
I ask the Taoiseach about the unmet needs of children with additional needs. Is the Taoiseach satisfied that, as students transfer from primary school to second level, enough is being done to ensure that there are places available for people with additional needs?
I also raise the transport section of the Department of Education, particularly dealing with kids with additional needs. Answers are not being provided to families who changed plans from the grant aid to transport being provided mid-stream because of family circumstances. They are being held up. Is the Taoiseach satisfied that the transport section is as efficient as it could be? More importantly, I raise the issue of the unmet need when students go from primary school to second level and then when they complete second level and go onto third level or placement. Is he satisfied with that? This is an issue that should be dealt with, particularly from the children and the education points of view.
Three-quarters of secondary schools report having teacher vacancies with zero applications. Teacher shortages are at a crisis point. Maths is being hit. Irish is being hit. Foreign languages are being hit. Woodwork, metal work and technical subjects are really being hit. Students are being forced to drop subjects. Students with special needs are disproportionately impacted as teachers are moved around to fill gaps.
Last night, teachers and parents held a public meeting in the Taoiseach’s own constituency of Dublin West to demand action. They want permanent jobs for teachers, pay that can cover the rent and affordable housing. As anger grows about this issue, what assurances can the Taoiseach give those people that he is going to take any action that makes any real difference on this issue?
In relation to children, I refer to a couple who have three children aged 16, 14 and ten years old. They have been homeless for two years. They do not want to bring their young children into homeless accommodation because they are terrified for them, particularly for their daughter, who they think would be very vulnerable. The children, as a result, are now staying with their 72-year-old grandmother on camp beds and in the grandmother's bed. The parents are couch surfing separately and the family has been separated for over a year. There are no available properties and they are being overlooked by homeless services because they are “not engaging with homeless services”. In other words, they do not want to go into hostels with their family. To me, that case highlights a serious problem in terms of child homelessness.
We cannot put families into the situation whereby the only option available to them is to bring children into completely unsuitable conditions.
I add my voice to the issue relating to the lateness of the leaving certificate results. It impacts on such institutions as Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, in being able to offer positions to those coming from the North who may already have their offers of United Kingdom Accreditation Service, UKAS, positions. We need that to be dealt with.
I also have a question in regard to children’s autism services. We know we do not have the speech and language therapists, the occupational therapists and the psychologists. We need the workforce planning piece to be done. Moreover, we need to be able to offer services, not the silo services however. We know the issues that exist. Whether we are talking about primary care, child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, or disability services, there has to be no wrong door. We have to be able to offer people the best case scenario we can offer now, while filling all the positions that are unfilled in the very near future.
I join with others in raising the issue of services for autistic children, children with autism. Yesterday I met with a group of parents in Athy, County Kildare, and heard directly from them about their difficult experiences in seeking to access education and services not only for their children but for those whose children had turned 18. Services for young adults are sorely lacking. I appeal to the Taoiseach to ensure more can be done on that and also of course to flag that tomorrow morning we will again raise this issue with our Labour Party Private Members’ motion on autism services and the need for a national plan on autism.
I also raise the growing crisis in the provision of early years childcare places. In my constituency another crèche has recently closed. I hear regularly, every week, from constituents about the difficulties they have in accessing childcare and early years education places. I know it is not unique to my constituency as I hear it from Labour Party representatives throughout the country. What proposals has the Taoiseach to ensure adequacy of supply of childcare and early years places?
I wish to raise the issue of visibility and safety for members of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, LGBTQI, community among both faculty and students in schools. BeLong To research from last year showed that more than three-quarters of LGBTQI students feel unsafe in post-primary schools. The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, INTO, LGBT+ teachers’ group, a voluntary sub-group of the INTO, advocates for LGBT+ inclusion in our primary schools. It expressed its disappointment with the cineáltas implementation plan released last April. In that plan there is far less explicit focus on LGBTQI+ bullying when compared with the 2013 anti-bullying procedures. How can this be the right choice when we have seen such an increase in vile attacks? What is the Taoiseach going to do in order to make our schools safer and allow our teachers, faculty and students to feel visible in the school environment?
I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the condition of many of our schools. We have some fantastic physical buildings. The Taoiseach was in one recently in my community in Kingswood. That shows what is possible. That should be what we aspire to for all our children to have access to. Unfortunately, many children go to school in buildings that are completely unfit for the purpose of being used as schools and need new, quality buildings in their place. For example, the Minister for Education was recently out in St. Aidan’s Community School in Brookfield. She saw it, and the Taoiseach can ask her about it. It is in a terribly dilapidated state. The roof is an ongoing problem. There are multiple serious leaks through the roof every year. The carpet is damaged as a consequence. The external walls have white stuff coming out of them in many places. The windows are in a terrible state. I could go on.
Please do not.
The point is they need a new building but they cannot even get a timeline as to when such a decision will be made.
The filmed attack on the child in Navan more than a week ago has shocked so many people throughout the country. The sustained nature of it, as the child lay on the ground, was brutal. It is important there is justice for this child and his family. Sadly, it is not an isolated event. Peer violence outside schools is growing in this country and child-on-child violence is also growing in Ireland at the moment. I do not wish to speak specifically about this case in its legal aspects because we want to see the law implemented properly. However, in general terms, would the Taoiseach agree that there has to be a real cost to young perpetrators of violence on young people, a real deterrent to protect children from violence? The youth diversion programme plays a valuable role in diverting children from the criminal system. However, would the Taoiseach agree that when it comes to significant violence by children on children that the juvenile liaison officer, JLO, system is not the required justice and is not a sufficient deterrent?
Will Members agree to take two minutes from each of the next two blocks of questions to give the Taoiseach a chance to respond? Agreed. We are adding four minutes to this section for a response, with the agreement of the Taoiseach.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Deputies Clarke, Dillon and Ó Murchú raised the issue of the date for the leaving certificate examination results. I do not as yet have a date. We all want it to be in August. Young people in sixth year want to know what course they will be doing next year. Many have to find accommodation, which is difficult, and the more time they have the better their chances. Of course, there are people who are applying for courses abroad and people from Northern Ireland who are applying for courses here. I know the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the State Examinations Commission will do all they can to make sure the results are issued as early as possible. It is not in a position to say as yet because that will depend on the number of examiners it can hire and on other issues such as second sitting. Nobody wants to give a date and then change that date. I assure Deputies that we are working on this.
In regard to modular classrooms, often the reason the Department of Education offers modular classrooms is that they can be provided quite quickly and are needed quickly. They can also be of extremely high quality. There are a number of them in my constituency. When people hear “modular” they sometimes think of the prefabs of old. Some of these buildings are top class and unless you were told they were modular you would in many cases not even know. I hear what Deputy Murphy has to say about new schools. It was a pleasure to open Kingswood Community College in his constituency the other day, St. Mochta's, and Cahir National School in County Tipperary. I look forward to opening the Edmund Rice Secondary School in Castleknock in a few days’ time. Looking at these new school buildings makes it clear how wonderful they are, what high quality they are and what is possible. However, it makes the old buildings appear all the worse. I have the same experience when it comes to new hospital wings. It reminds us how much more we need to do when it comes to replacing old infrastructure, rather than just building new infrastructure. We have a school building budget now of about €1 billion a year. It has never been higher. There is a huge programme under way. Can we increase it further? Yes, we can, and we will consider that as we review the national development plan, NDP, thresholds. However, there are real constraints. There are only so many builders out there. There is only so much steel and so much concrete. We are starting to run into constraints that are not about money. We can increase the funding. However, that will speed it up but will also increase the cost. I totally understand where the Deputy is coming from on that.
On the staffing levels, raised by Deputy Murnane O’Connor, she was right to say we have more teachers in Ireland now than ever before. Teacher-pupil ratios are at or close to an all-time low. On the specific issue, I will have to get back to her. I just do not know enough about this issue and I do not wish to give an incorrect answer. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to come back with a detailed reply.
In regard to the issue of children with additional educational needs raised by Deputies Moynihan, Bacik and others, we have a dedicated Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, with responsibility for special educational needs now for the first time ever. There is a substantial budget of about €2 billion. Nearly a quarter of all our education budget now goes on helping children with additional educational needs. There are more special needs assistants, SNAs, all the time as well as more special classes and some new special schools. Am I satisfied? No, I am not. I do not think I could be. Anybody who attends their constituency office or constituency clinic and hears the number of stories of children who are not getting the help they need early enough could not possibly be satisfied. However, we are doing more every day, every week and every month. That will continue.
In regard to the issue of teacher shortages occurring in many schools, which was raised by Deputy Barry, I accept this is an issue. I know of quite a number of schools, not just in my constituency but in others, where students' subject choice has been restricted. Many more subjects are offered than in the past so it is harder to fully staff all the subjects than would have been the case in the past. It is a shame however, to see student choice being restricted in that way. It is one thing not to offer a subject. It is another thing to take it away. That is happening in certain instances. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is working on this to see what options are available. However, as is the case across our economy, in both the public sector and private sector, for low-paid jobs and well-paid jobs, we are at full employment and there are shortages across the board. Even increasing pay does not necessarily solve the problem because of full employment. That is particularly the case when there is an international labour market for particular skills.
Anything we can do that we believe will work, we will do, however. I cannot go into the individual case raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett without knowing the details. If he passes those details on to me, I will see if we can get a reply from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on that specifically.
On the matters raised by Deputy Tóibín, the Deputy is right. If children are engaged in violence and serious crime, there have to be consequences. That has to be done on an individualised basis, however. Nobody wants to see a child being criminalised, getting a criminal record or being put in detention, and that is why there are alternatives in place. It depends on the individual case, the gravity of the crime, the circumstances around it and what is best for the children involved.