Gary Gannon
Question:69. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Education her priorities, and those of her Department, when considering her call for mobile phones to be banned in primary schools. [53100/23]
View answerThursday, 30 November 2023
Questions (69)
Oral answers (8 contributions)
I am asking the Minister about her and her Department's priorities when considering her recent call, as opposed to the enactment of legislation, for mobile phones to be banned in primary schools.
As the Deputy is aware, the use of mobile devices and smartphones has increasingly become a part of the daily lives of our children and young people. While this can be a positive experience, we must also consider the potential harm associated with the misuse and-or overuse of these devices and associated social media platforms, particularly for younger children. While smartphone usage is, by and large, well-managed during the primary school day, there are concerns about usage outside of school and the prevalence of online bullying. It is important to note that I am not aware of any of our primary schools where phones are being used during school time. The issue raised with us, and that continues to be raised by parents, concerns not what is happening in the school but what is happening outside school hours.
The well-being of all learners is a key priority of my Department, as well as the empowerment of parents and school communities through education and information. With this in mind, as the Deputy has said, I recently published guidelines for parents called Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free. These guidelines provide practical advice and suggestions to support parents and parents associations wishing to develop voluntary codes regarding smartphone use among primary school children. This initiative seeks to support parents who wish to come together with their school community to explore and agree on the best approach to mediate their children’s engagement with the online world, including adopting a voluntary code for their children to not have a smartphone until a certain time.
We are suggesting that would be after sixth class. Ultimately, the aim of this initiative is to ensure the necessary supports and resources are available to inform and enable parents to support their children to navigate the online world safely and ethically.
The Department is acutely aware of the importance of online safety for children and continues to ensure there are extensive training and curricular supports available to assist schools and our school communities. A key resource in training and the provision of supports is the vital work undertaken by Webwise. Its role is focused on raising awareness of online safety issues and good practice among students and their parents and teachers. The new supports announced earlier this month will bolster the capacity of Webwise to educate and inform and continue to raise awareness.
I thank the Minister for her response. I do not need to diminish the importance placed on online safety for children in primary and secondary school. In the context of the horrific events we have seen in the past week, I wish to reference the area of priorities. As we concern ourselves with what children are viewing online nationally, I cannot step away from what primary school children often witness when they walk outside of the school gates in the inner city and other parts of Dublin and around the country.
In my constituency, too often children walk outside of their school gates and are met by antisocial behaviour, open drug dealing and people in various states of intoxication. Those people have problems and are not to be used as a prop in the Dáil. However, there are issues of safety in general around those schools. I hope the Minister will now take the issue of safety around schools more seriously, engage across Cabinet and come up with a concerted plan to ensure we do not enable a scenario whereby children walk outside of their school gates and see open drug dealing and all sorts of antisocial behaviour. We need to start taking this a lot more seriously.
I thank the Deputy. I want to be very clear at the outset. What happened in Parnell Square, in close proximity to a school, was an unprecedented event. There are 4,000 schools, 1 million pupils and 100,000 school staff in Ireland. They are excellent environments in which children are mentored, minded, guarded and protected. I want to salute and acknowledge the excellent work that happens every single day in our schools. As a consequence of this particular incident, which happened in close proximity to a school, as I have outlined significant supports have been made available through the NEPS teams which have been in the school since the incident happened. They continue to be there and will support the school, staff and students.
Significant funding has been made available through initiatives to Dublin's north inner city in terms of financing initiatives to support the area. I want to be very clear. The incident that occurred was not necessarily an incident related to the school, which is important. By that I mean that the individuals concerned, whether passers-by or the perpetrator of the crime, are not a reflection on the specific area and the very good people who live, work and send their children to the schools or crèches in the area. I want to be very clear. This is not indicative of the people who live and work in that area.
I am sure the Minister does not need to tell me that the incident is not-----
No, and I appreciate that.
I appreciate that. We can also appreciate that in more middle-class and suburban areas of the country, I often find parents campaigning to remove a fast food restaurant from outside of school gates. In the inner city and surrounding areas that I represent, too often over the years I have received calls from parents and members of the school community to remove open drug dealing from outside of the school or vulnerable people in various states of intoxication from outside a school. We have to take this issue seriously.
I strongly encourage the Minister to work across Departments. There has been a massive focus on last week's incident. However, I cannot step away from the fact that members of the school community across Dublin have raised issues regarding open drug dealing outside of school gates and various sorts of antisocial behaviour. The Minister needs to work across the Cabinet to ensure that the schools which have raised those issues in the past - I am sure the incidents are well documented as they have been raised here at different points - now receive a greater sense of urgency and attention.
I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge the excellent engagement from everyone here, including Deputy Gannon, and how supportive and helpful they have been to the local community, including the school community. I recognise in particular Deputy Gannon's personal engagement with me.
On the wider issues the Deputy has raised, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Garda Commissioner have already highlighted a variety of initiatives that have been taken throughout the capital, including an increase in Garda presence and the type of supports that are being made available to gardaí to ensure the environment within the area is as it should be. A significant body of work is being done in that regard. In terms of a cross-agency response, the Department of Education is working with the HSE on the provision of supports for parents. We will continue to do that. There is a multifaceted response.
Given that this question relates specifically to mobile phones, I want to take the opportunity to say we are very conscious of the need for children, in particular, not to use smartphones. We are not saying that young children should not have a phone, but rather that they would not have a smartphone until they have left sixth class because what they carry around in their pocket is not always appropriate for them.