I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Childcare Services
I thank the Cathaoirleach for choosing this matter and I welcome the Minister of State. I acknowledge the range of supports and investment provided by the Government to the Department of children to assist parents in affording childcare, which has been greatly beneficial. I acknowledge also the work of the city and county childcare committees, whether through the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme or the national childcare scheme, to assist parents who are looking for places and families who are looking for support and assistance with childcare matters at a local level. My concerns relate to that cohort of parents who are under considerable stress because they cannot get a place in any local childcare facility or crèche because there are capacity issues. I am sure it is not unique to my part of the world but is nationwide. I have been contacted by parents in Rosscahill and Oughterard, for example, in my area of Galway who say the local crèches are full and that there are waiting lists. The parents of newborn babies have been told it will be three years before a place will open in a childcare facility. I am not in any way blaming the wonderful facilities that exist, which provide excellent places and supports locally, and I am sure they are under great pressure from parents seeking places, which is understandable.
What are the Government and the Department doing proactively to increase the availability of places? What supports have been put in place for somebody who has a building or is interested in leasing a building long term or medium term in a locality where there is a need for places? Supports are paramount. I understand that, similar to the forward planning section of the Department, there are measures within the Department to this effect. Our colleagues will debate Private Members' business later today in respect of school places. Just because there is a forward planning section in the Department of Education does not mean there is never a problem accessing school places. I am suspicious as to whether this initiative within the Department of children will solve the problem, even if it may assist in identifying where there are gaps. If an individual wishes to get involved in opening a crèche where there is an evident need and demand in a locality, what supports are in place to assist that person, company or business? Where a facility wishes to open a second site in a locality, what supports are in place? We know about the pressures and difficulties in getting staff and the stringent and necessary requirements that apply in respect of child safety, such as the training, the health and safety measures and all that goes with opening a childcare facility. It is an onerous task and not something anyone can just decide they are going to do and then open a facility tomorrow morning.
I do acknowledge the additional supports that have been provided and will be provided in the autumn in respect of childminding. Budget 2024 opened the national childcare scheme to parents who use childminding. From next autumn, they will be available for supports in line with the commitment under the national action plan for childminding. I hope that can assist in the availability of places as well.
I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. Ensuring that high-quality early learning and childcare is affordable and accessible to all children, in particular children from vulnerable backgrounds, is a key priority for the Government. Data from the latest annual early years sector profile from last summer estimated that 14,088 children were enrolled in early learning and childcare in Galway. This represents an 8% increase from 13,047 in the previous year. The data also indicated that 50% of services had waiting lists and 50% had at least one vacant place. This year's annual early years sector profile will commence in May and will provide an updated picture of the capacity in Galway.
The Department of children funds 30 city and county childcare committees that provide support for families and providers with early learning and childcare matters. The Galway childcare committee is in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places and to engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion, especially where there is unmet need. The Department understands the Galway childcare committee also provides a variety of supports to potential new services. This includes information on the requirements for setting up a new early learning and childcare or childminding service and these supports include local site visits for potential new providers with follow-up information on the requirements for planning, fire regulation, Tusla regulation and funding. The Department is continuing to develop its capacity to analyse supply and demand for early learning and childcare and in January 2024, it established a new supply management unit to identify areas of supply and demand mismatch and to develop appropriate policy responses to address those gaps. In addition to designing and implementing capital funding programmes, the new unit will develop the forward planning capacity of the Department as it continues to enhance the level of public management in the sector.
The national development plan, NDP, recognises early learning and childcare provision, along with housing, school and healthcare facilities, as an integral part of national infrastructure. A total of €250 million has been committed over the lifetime of the plan to 2030. In 2024, €18 million in capital funding has been set aside under the building blocks capacity grant scheme to increase the number of full- and part-time places, especially for those aged one to three years.
This will be followed later in 2024 with a further scheme that will fund larger-scale extension projects also focused on increasing the number of places for age one to three. This scheme will be announced in the coming months and it will run over the course of 2024 and 2025. Therefore, as well as capital funding, core funding has demonstrated its effectiveness in supporting capacity growth in the sector since it was introduced first in 2022. The allocation for year 2 of the scheme provides for a 3% growth in capacity, which has materialised, and the allocation of year 3 of the scheme provides for further growth of another 3%.
In addition to physical infrastructure, one of the constraints on capacity is having sufficient staff employed to make places available. It has been recognised for many years that our low pay in the sector has been the main cause of staff recruitment and retention difficulties. As the State is not the employer, neither the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman nor the Department of children can set wage levels or determine the working conditions in the sector. However, there is now, through the independent joint labour committee, JLC, process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for different roles in the sector. In September of 2022, the first JLC-negotiated employment regulation order, ERO, for early years services came into force. The EROs, which are supported by core funding, provide new minimum hourly rates of pay for various roles in the sector. The JLC continues to meet. The Minister understands that it has recently submitted to the Labour Court new draft proposals to increase all current ERO minimum rates by 5% and also removing the requirements of three years work experience for graduate minimum pay rates, which will see further improvements and minimum rates of pay. This may assist in making available additional capacity in existing services.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the Government is moving shortly to regulate home-based provision of early learning and childcare. That will enable parents who are using child minders to avail of subsidies through the national childcare scheme.
I thank the Minister of State for the response. We have to wait and see how the new supply and management unit in the Department, which has been operational since January 2024, responds to the issues in a locality. Yes, the local childcare committee can identify where there are vacancies and where there is need but there is no point in telling someone in Rosscahill or Oughterard that there is a place on the far side of Galway city or in Clifden or in Carraroe. Obviously in most cases, as well as bringing children to childcare people might also have to do the school runs. They may have part-time or full-time jobs. There has to be a very local match to the demand. That is the concern that I have. Yes, places can be identified but they have to be identified locally.
I take the Senator’s point that the matching of demand and supply has to be very local and that applies in a county which has large distances between different towns and villages but investment in early learning and childcare services has quadrupled in the last nine years. It went from €260 million in 2015 to €1.1 billion this year. That increased investment has focused on improving access to affordable and quality early learning and childcare services. The data shows that there are increasing numbers of places for children. There is an increase in the number of services in operation, an increase in the number of staff in the sector and of parents availing of subsidised early learning and childcare.
The Minister and the Government recognise, however, that more needs to be done to ensure quality early learning and childcare is both affordable and accessible to the children and their families and they will continue to prioritise further investments to meet the objective.
Health Services
I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I am raising the need for the Minister for Health to address issues relating to the state of trans healthcare in Ireland and the need to move to informed consent, gender affirming care at community and primary care level.
I will give some context of our trans health care here in Ireland, although frankly, that is something that I do not think we really have. We are ranked worst in the EU for availability and accessibility for trans health by TGEU, despite the fact we have some of the most progressive laws. Unfortunately, our health system does not match that. We are rated F for timely and adequate access to trans health care by LGBT Ireland and we have a de facto centralised gender clinic model. There are no national gender-affirming healthcare policies or guidelines. It seems people must wait ten years and more to be able to access healthcare. By any measure, that is a de facto non-existent healthcare system and is not good enough.
Some of the issues with the system include a lack of access to quality care, as I said; a decade-long waitlist for the primary public service; non-existent youth services; denial of services and primary care; little to no availability of surgery within Ireland; and, a failure to adhere to international guidelines. I am sure the Minister of State will have seen people fundraising in order to get the healthcare they need in another country.
Another issue with the system is a severe lack of bodily autonomy. There are incredibly invasive psychiatric assessments. Some of the questions I have heard people being asked are unbelievable. Incredibly invasive questions are being put to people who know their own mind and their own body but are put through the wringer about very intimate personal details, borderline Freud kind of stuff, which does not really tie in with what we have, which is a consent-based, self-ID model. The healthcare does not match what we have in legislation which is “we believe you when you say who you say you are”. By contrast, the health system puts them through all these questionable things.
There is discrimination, stereotyping and an exclusion of trans people from policy development. The message comes across from all the trans organisations that I have met with and work with which say they do not feel they are at the table in any meaningful way on the decisions that have been made about trans people. There is no path for any young trans person to access gender-affirming medical care in Ireland and young trans people throughout the country are suffering. They deserve to be treated with dignity and, if they want it, access to safe medication so they have time to explore their gender identity without the pressure of dysphoria from their bodies changing. Trans youth need the acknowledgement that their lives matter, just as much as if they were cisgender children. We need a new system which is based on an informed-consent model for gender-affirming care, community and primary care based and co-production with the trans community, an affirming approach to care for youth and one that upholds the human right to bodily autonomy.
I will say a little about the informed consent model. This is grounded in accurate, evidence-based education on transition. It is led by the person's own free and informed decisions about their body and their treatment. It is facilitated through discussion on the expectations, benefits, risks and limitations of any treatment, and it is free from gatekeeping, pathologisation and discrimination. The community and primary care model is facilitated by primary care general practitioners and nurses. It is easy to access locally with over a decade-long waitlist. It is tailored to the person's needs. It is integrated into guidelines of trains for GPs and nurses and it is accessible to trans people in rural communities. We need to recognise and respect each person's gender identity without questioning or judging it and we need to acknowledge that there is no medical, psychological or psychiatric tests that confirm or deny gender identity.
I just want to know from the Minister of State today, what the Government and the Minister for Health will do about trans health care in Ireland. We simply do not have trans health care in Ireland if it means one must wait ten or more years to get any of it.
The provision of proper, appropriate and integrated gender healthcare services is something that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly is anxious to see put in place for persons who are questioning their gender identity or are experiencing gender incongruence or gender dysphoria. The Minister has previously acknowledged that they do not currently have access to that in Ireland and that he is determined to change that. In that context, I can confirm the HSE has recently appointed Dr. Karl Neff as clinical lead for the multidisciplinary team, MDT, which will lead the development of a new model of care under the auspices of the national clinical programmes. The Department of Health has provided €100,000 in funding for the establishment of this team. Now that this appointment has been made, the HSE is initiating a new clinical programme for gender healthcare over the next two years, an updated clinical model and implementation plan for gender healthcare services will be developed.
This work will be informed by the best evidence based clinical care for individuals who express gender incongruence or dysphoria. Now that the full Cass report has been published, it will be reviewed along with other emerging and evolving international evidence as part of this work. There is a clear and well established approach to the development of this model of care which, as well as reviewing the best available clinical evidence, will also incorporate input from healthcare professionals, patient advocates and those with lived experience. A key part of this development of this model of care will be consultation with stakeholders. It is particularly crucial that the people who are and will be availing of gender healthcare have their voices heard in this process. I can assure the Senator that the Minister is anxious to ensure that all stakeholders are fully consulted on the development of this model of care.
The model of care will incorporate a multi-tiered approach, where care will be delivered at the most appropriate level of medical complexity. While the model of care is being developed, people will continue to receive healthcare in the community and under the endocrinology service in the adult and paediatric centres in Ireland East Hospital Group and Children’s Health Ireland.
With regard to current services, children and young people who require specialist psychological and psychiatric assessment and support are now referred to the children and young people gender national referral support service in the UK, who will triage these referrals to one of the newly developed services in London and Liverpool-Manchester. This service will work with CHI if endocrine review is required. The adult gender service based in St. Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown provides services for people over the age of 16 years.
The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is committed to the development of a well governed and patient-centred healthcare service for adults and children in the transgender community.
I note the mention of the Cass report. I will not go too much into it but there were questionable methodologies in the research of that report. It is disappointing that there has been wilful misrepresentation in the media and by some bad actors of the report. It is being used to deny, restrict and cut off services to very vulnerable people. I hope that is borne in mind as well.
Trans people, like all of us, need healthcare services that are centred on the principles of bodily autonomy, person-led decision-making and informed consent; adhere to the rights of safe, equitable, accessible and quality healthcare; are facilitated by healthcare professionals to provide individuals with care, respect, empathy and accuracy; and uplift decision-making according to each person’s individual needs. I am worried that the response does not take into account that we still do not have trans healthcare in Ireland. With this response, I am not sure that we will get it in the way that we need it.
I take on board all issues raised during this discussion. I note that all of us in this House want to ensure that the transgender community is given the proper, appropriate and integrated care and support they need to live their authentic, fulfilling lives. The new model of care will aim to do just that.
The development of the new model of care for gender healthcare services is expected to be a complex process and the HSE and the Department of Health will work closely to support the process to ensure transparency and keep the patient at the centre of the process.
As I said in my opening statement, consultation with stakeholders will be a crucial part of this work. However, it is important that the HSE is given time to develop a model of care that is based on the best clinical evidence and that will deliver the best outcomes for persons with gender incongruence or dysphoria.
It is not possible to pre-empt the outcome of this process by determining at this stage what this model of care will look like once developed. The long-term aim is to provide a wide rage of services for all people with gender incongruence or dysphoria, from care locally in the community to more specialised and complex care. I am committed to building a service based on experience, clinical evidence, respect, inclusiveness and compassion.
Please rest assured that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is committed to the development of a well governed and patient-centred healthcare service for the transgender community.
Cancer Services
I thank the Minister of State for attending the Chamber in the stead of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. As we know, earlier in the week, a group of prominent oncologists wrote to the Taoiseach outlining the crucial need for new and recurrent multi-annual funding to the national cancer control programme in 2024 and to commit to ring-fenced funding to enable full delivery of the National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026. Why do they do this? They do this because cancer patients and survivors deserve nothing less. That is why we are here and why I am standing up and raising this issue.
Most of us are aware of the statistics, which are stark. The statistics are that one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime. What we sometimes forget is that behind every statistic is a living, breathing person – a person with parents, children, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends. That kind of thinking puts things in a different light. It certainly adds to the urgency, and that urgency is what I would like to impress on everyone today.
We have the capacity to do this. There has been huge investment in cancer services in this country. There have been huge one-off investments. What we need and what we are looking for is ring-fenced multi-annual funding. Part of the investment in 2022 saw €35 million in extra funding to cancer services, which included €20 million for new drug development and €15 million for new cancer high-tech drugs. This is amazing and commendable.
This investment shows we can do it. It shows we got 172 staff recruited to cancer services; €20 million in new development funding for cancer services leading to improved access and reduced waiting time for patients; €3 million support for cancer surgeries helped services return to pre-pandemic 2019 volumes; €3.4 million support for rapid-access clinics increased capacity and reduced waiting times; and €3 million for chemotherapy and immunotherapy provided support for more patients to receive treatment and for the introduction of new treatment such as paediatric CAR T-cell therapy and radioligand therapy.
Increased and targeted investment in cancer services clearly benefits patients who are experiencing reduced waiting times, improved radiotherapy services and getting better care in our cancer centres. However, we have to do even more for our cancer services and continue to improve and build on the progress made so far. We know investment pays off but what we need is ring-fenced multi-annual funding.
The National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 is our third national cancer strategy and something we should be proud of as a country. Our first strategy was established in 1996 with an aim of improving death rates in patients under 65 years of age. The second in 2006 set up the national cancer control programme, which ensured the development of cancer services would be equal for all parts of the country. The National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 has four pillars: to invest in cancer prevention; early detection; to provide the best treatment to those with cancer; and to look after cancer survivors. In this House, I had the “right to be forgotten” Bill, which was supported by our Government and is something that really helps cancer survivors, especially when they apply for life insurance or are looking to get out a mortgage.
Despite massive funding and significant process, this strategy requires more targeted funding to meet the goals, continually improve cancer services and provide for necessary care for patients. Waiting times for screening and scans is one of my little bugbears, in particular, that needs to be looked at. For someone who is receiving a cancer diagnosis or checking if their cancer is recurring, waiting for scans and not being sure if you will get a scan is possibly one of the most stress-inducing periods of a cancer journey. Ring-fenced funding to directly improve this area is essential to ensure early detection of cancer and that patients have the best possible treatment for their lifelong journey. As we stand here, one out of every two of us has the power and potential to dramatically change the outcome for cancer patients in this country, and that person is the Minister of State and his team.
Before I move on to the Minister of State, I welcome the pupils and teachers from Hewetson National School in Clane, County Kildare. I hope they enjoy the day and I hope the teachers treat them later on. Gabhaim buíochas leo agus tá fáilte rompu go léir.
Good morning to the young people and teachers. Just to let them know what is happening, Senator Catherine Ardagh is asking me,representing the Government, how we spend money to cure cancer. I am here on behalf of the Minister for Health to answer the question.
I thank Senator Ardagh for raising this question. Successive national cancer strategies have shown the benefits of continued investment in national cancer services. The benefits for Irish cancer patients come from earlier diagnosis, better treatment and improved rates of survival.
This Government has invested an additional €40 million into the national cancer strategy, and the total cumulative additional funding under this strategy since 2017 is €230 million. This funding has enabled the recruitment of more than 670 staff to our national cancer services since 2017, including an additional 200 nursing staff, 100 consultants and 180 health and social care professionals in designated cancer centres. Additionally, €30 million has been invested in cancer screening services since 2020, including €20 million for the development of the National Cervical Screening Laboratory, which opened in December 2022. Capital funding of €120 million has been used to provide state-of-the-art radiation oncology facilities in Cork and Galway, which opened in 2020 and 2023. This is to update cancer infrastructure in chemotherapy wards and lab facilities for the benefit of patients.
This Government has also allocated significant investment in ensuring new medicines are available for cancer patients. Funding for 61 different cancer drugs over the past three years has been made possible through an allocation of €98 million additional funding for new medicines. The total spend on cancer drugs in the past three years has been more than €600 million. Since 2020, new cancer treatments and models of care have been launched in Ireland thanks to the increased funding for the national cancer strategy. New treatments include CAR T-cell therapy for certain blood cancers, radioligy and therapy for neuroendocrine tumour patients and the stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, or SABR, an advanced radiotherapy treatment.
Nine out of ten cancers are diagnosed following on from individuals presenting to their GP with symptoms. This is supported through GPs having access to electronic referral for breast, lung, prostate and suspected skin cancers. More patients are being seen now than ever before in rapid access clinics, with more than 53,000 attendances in 2023.
Early intervention in cancer is extremely important. As part of the urgent and emergency care plan this year, time-sensitive cancer surgeries are given priority where possible. The NCCP engages closely with designated centres to monitor the activity of surgical services. By the end of 2023, more than 17,000 cancer surgeries were carried out. This is in excess of 1,000 more than in 2019.
Under successive cancer strategies, there has been an improvement in cancer survival rates in Ireland. Looking back to the period between 1994 and 1998, the five-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with cancer in those years was 44%. This has now increased dramatically to 65% for people diagnosed with cancer between 2014 and 2018.
As cancer will affect one in three of us in our lifetime, support for cancer services and for cancer patients will continue to be prioritised as part of the overall health budget. This Government has invested heavily in the national cancer strategy and associated initiatives in recent years, enabling the further development of our national cancer services and leading to improved outcomes for cancer patients.
I also welcome the children from the primary school. It shows that our national cancer strategy has been hugely effective but we can always do more, particularly with regard to screening. It would be great to see the extension of lung cancer screening programmes. Every person we treat requires a yearly scan post treatment and when he or she is in remission, so it is so important we put the money and investment into ensuring post-diagnosis and post-remission scans are in place for families because people have to live through their cancer diagnosis and their cancer journey. This means when they are well. They want to know that, every year in June, they will get their scan, it is going to be fine and they can get on with their lives. Sometimes people wait years for their post-cancer scan, which is unacceptable, so we need to ensure we extend the screening programmes for breast cancer. It would be great to see the age for breast cancer screening reduced and the extension of screening to lung cancer.
I will raise with the Minister for Health the Senator's points about bringing in lung cancer screening and extending breast cancer screening to younger people. With regard to the Senator's point about multi-annual funding, I will ask about that in the Vote in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and see what the situation is because most things now involve multi-annual funding. The Senator acknowledged that most people diagnosed with cancer now survive. At the time my mother was diagnosed with cancer, most people died. That is the change and the Senator has acknowledged that.
The strategies have shown the benefit of continued investment in national cancer services and the Government has shown its commitment to implementing the national cancer strategy through significant investment in recent years. The new development funding provided in those years has been added to the total budget for cancer services and an additional €230 million since 2017 has been added through the strategy.
A total of 215,000 people living in Ireland have had a diagnosis of invasive cancer. The NCCP has progressed survivorship programmes to support improved quality of life for cancer patients. As part of this, the NCCP established the alliance of community cancer support centres. They provide guidance and support, which in turn provide psychosocial supports for cancer patients and their families in the community.
In discussing funding for our national cancer strategy, we must remember that 23,000 people receive a diagnosis of invasive cancer each year and cancer is a public health issue. One in three of us can expect to be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime. The additional funding has gone into services under this Government and has been of direct benefit to cancer patients. This remains the top priority for this Government but I thank the Senator for the points she made, which I will raise with the Minister for Health.
Schools Building Projects
I am sorry to have to raise this Commencement matter because the issue is an ongoing one. Rush National School is a school in north County Dublin that was built in 1953 and now has 700 pupils. Morgan Doran is the principal and runs an excellent school. It has served untold numbers of people from Rush and it is an excellent school. Plans have been afoot to build a new school on the site for in excess of 17 years. This would be a 32-classroom school with two autism classrooms and all the ancillary rooms needed for a modern fit-for-purpose school.
The campaign was started by the former principal Margaret Dobinson and the board of management 17 years ago. When Morgan Doran took over as principal, the chairman of the board of management, Peter Conway, continued this campaign. Approval was obtained for this building development in 2010 and planning permission was granted in 2013. It has been renewed in the interim but, unfortunately, planning permission expired on 8 December 2023. There has been no correspondence from the Department of Education for more than a year. The last piece of correspondence was dated 14 April 2023. The board of management has made numerous attempts to engage the Department to see what steps it should take next. The expiring of planning permission was looming. The board of management had no correspondence. Nobody from the Department would engage.
It is very frustrating given this has been an ongoing issue for 17 years. The school is way oversubscribed with a very long waiting list. The building dates from 1953 and is damp, cold and not fit for purpose. The teachers are working and children are being educated in appalling conditions and they all deserve better. The children are getting a very good education there. There is great community spirit, the people of Rush are very invested in the school and school staff are excellent and dedicated, but it is not acceptable that such conditions are continuing and the Department is not engaging.
I held off raising this Commencement matter because the school wants to engage in a constructive way and move the project on but we feel there is no other solution. The school must re-apply for planning permission. It needs direction from the Department regarding the termination of the current tender procedure, but it is not getting that from the Department. The board of management under the stewardship of Peter Conway is very frustrated and does not know what steps it needs to take next. Local authority planning guidelines have changed since the date the school first got planning permission, so it has to change the design but it cannot proceed with that either until it gets engagement from the Department. Meanwhile the years fly by. The school cannot put any autism classes in place, which is a source of great frustration to the school management because it wants to serve everybody in the community. Unfortunately, it cannot offer school places to some members of families because they need special autism education. This is not an acceptable position to be in. The population of Rush is in excess of 11,000 and is expanding rapidly. There are many large-scale building projects in the town. The school cannot facilitate it. There are not enough school places. North County Dublin is absorbing the housing needs of Dublin, and Rush is no exception. We are getting thousands of houses. We have no problem with that. We are not objecting to housing because we all know we need it, but we need the public infrastructure to go along with housing. Schools are the top priority. We need buses. We need the metro. We need services delivered for north County Dublin and for Rush. Planning approval for the St. Maur's site next to the school as a temporary play site while construction takes place expires in March 2026, so this really needs to get moving. I appeal to the Minister of State to get the Department to engage with the board of management and get this project going.
I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for putting it so well regarding the challenges faced by a strong and growing community in Rush in north County Dublin and the challenges faced by the school. Seventeen years is a long time to wait for this school to be developed.
Members of the board have had great patience and tenacity. The school is watching in on this Commencement matter today. For the principal, Mr. Morgan Doran, managing a school of 700 pupils with growing demand in this area, it is vital that the project now proceeds.
The major building project for Rush National School is included in the Department of Education's construction programme which is being delivered under the national development plan. The project brief includes the demolition of the existing single-storey Rush National School building and removal of existing temporary accommodation and construction of a new two-storey building on the same site. The project brief includes 32 classrooms, two classrooms for children with special educational needs, a general purpose hall and ancillary accommodation. External works include a new boundary treatment, landscaping, staff car parking area, ball courts, play areas, bicycle storage, bin storage and ancillary work. This is a very exciting project for this important school.
A tender report was received from the design team in 2023 and was reviewed by the Department. In the course of this review it was noted that the planning permission was due to expire in December 2023 and a new planning permission application would be required. The Department is liaising with the design team in relation to the requirements of the new planning permission and the design team held a pre-planning meeting with Fingal County Council very recently in March 2024. The due diligence by the Department of Education is a critical part of the overall completion of the stage 3 process and is critical to ensuring quality and value for money. The projects are progressed within the overall programme parameters. In response to the Senator, progress may feel slow but it is progressing. There is hope for optimism that it will progress given the most recent meeting in March. I hope it will go to planning and construction as soon as possible.
I thank the Minister of State for that update. Can we get somebody within the Department actually to liaise with the school? That information was not communicated to the board of management. It is operating in a vacuum and obviously has to report back to the parents and the whole community as to what is going on. However, when no communication is going back that is a frustrating situation for the board.
There is a bit of progress but this school project needs to be put on a fast track. It is unacceptable to wait for 17 years, considering the population demands. All schools have difficulties in retaining staff, particularly in Dublin. The Department expects staff to work in a building that is crumbling around them and is cold and damp in the winter. They patch up windows before they can teach a class in the morning. The Minister of State will understand the challenges that the principal is dealing with. We need to have somebody in the Department who will stay in contact. I realise they are busy people but this school and this community have waited long enough and they deserve better.
Since 2020 the Department of Education has invested in the region of €4.3 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of more than 800 school building projects with construction currently under way at approximately 300 other projects including 34 new school buildings. These 300 projects currently under construction involve a total State investment of €1.2 billion. More than 90 projects are currently at tender stage including a further 28 new school buildings. All of these new school buildings are flagship projects in their area and transform the educational infrastructure of their communities.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Senator. I will ask the Minister to have direct engagement between the school and Department officials, because 17 years is far too long to wait. Great credit is due to the principal, Mr. Morgan Doran, to his staff and the board for their tenacity. It is important that this project proceeds as soon as is practical once all elements of the design process have been completed.
I will certainly take this to the Minister.
School Textbooks
I welcome the Minister of State. The junior cycle book scheme was published on 5 March 2024. It provides free books to second level students up to junior certificate, excluding fee-paying schools.
Under Article 42.4 of the Constitution, the State has a duty to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiatives. To the extent that reasonable aid is provided, it must be applied universally, equally and without discrimination. However, this scheme by its nature is discriminating against parents who choose to send their children to fee-paying schools. It is hard to see how this is not contrary to the Constitution.
While some families may choose to spend their money on cars or multiple holidays, some focus their family expenditure on education. For families who make this prudent financial decision, it seems that our Government is not supportive of such parents and choose not to treat all children of the nation equally. The discrimination against fee-paying parents is further highlighted by the recent announcement that ICT funding is to be reinstated to schools, with fee-paying schools only being provided a 50% funding rate. This is another example of the Government not treating children equally. It seems the Government is of the impression that all fee-paying students are from a privileged background, which is not the case in many cases. Families make sacrifices to provide the best opportunity they can for their children's education.
Another criticism of the scheme revolves around the negative impact on the book retail industry in Ireland. In September 2023 The Irish Times reported that Eason's revenue was down by €2.5 million due to the scheme. An industry representative group called Bookselling Ireland stated the scheme was extremely challenging for the industry. If big retailers note a negative knock-on effect, small retailers will be lucky to stay open. Poor Government planning is on full display with the gross failures of this scheme as there is little consideration for the impact on fee-paying parents and industries. The Constitution acknowledges that the family is the primary and natural educator of the child and that parents are free to choose. It is a great shame that people are discriminated against for positive investment in their children's education, and that the book retail industry is at risk.
Before I invite the Minister of State, I welcome the pupils and teachers of St. John's National School in Longford to the Seanad Chamber. I hope they enjoy the day here.
The Senator will be aware that the Department of Education's 2023-25 statement of strategy sets out its vision for an education system that is of the highest quality where every member of our educational community, including our children and young people, their families and all the staff who engage with them, feel valued and supported. It sets out a goal to ensure equity of opportunity in our education system so that all children and young people are supported to fulfil their potential. The Minister for Education is committed to continued development and improvement in the education sector through delivery of the strategic goals of the statement of strategy.
As part of budget 2024 the Minister, Deputy Foley, announced more than €68 million to provide free books and core classroom resources for junior cycle students within the free education scheme from September 2024. This significant investment further reflects this Government's commitment to a quality and inclusive school system with improved learning outcomes for every student. This Government recognises that the cost of preparing children for school each September can be a cause of financial difficulty and worry to many Irish families. This free junior cycle schoolbook scheme will eliminate the costs to these families for all school books and core classroom resources at junior cycle.
As with the free primary school books scheme implemented in 2023, this scheme further delivers on the programme for Government commitment to extend the free school book pilot which ran in more than 100 DEIS primary schools over three years to the end of the 2022-23 school year, as resources permit. For the 2024-25 school year, the junior cycle schoolbook scheme will benefit more than 213,000 students in approximately 670 post-primary schools including students enrolled in junior cycle programmes of over 65 recognised special schools.
On 5 March the Minister, Deputy Foley, announced details of the scheme. Comprehensive guidance to support schools in implementing the scheme was published and issued to all eligible post-primary schools. The funding issued in March to all eligible post-primary schools and special schools to purchase all school books and core classroom resources for their students in time for the start of the 2024-25 school year. The scheme will seek to ensure that value for money is achieved and that schools will be supported to implement the scheme in a way that has the best learning outcomes for students. As with the primary school scheme, the Department has put in place grant payments for schools for administrative support for the 2024-25 school year. The Department is also providing additional bespoke procurement support to ensure the scheme will be implemented in time for the start of the new school year.
For senior cycle students, the Department of Education will continue to provide a book grant in respect of senior cycle students in all recognised post-primary schools, within the free education scheme, to provide assistance for books, including book rental schemes. Schools participating in the Department's DEIS programme will continue to receive an enhanced rate of post-primary book grant for senior cycle students. Guidelines for developing textbook rental schemes in schools were published in 2012 by the Department and are still applicable in post-primary schools. These guidelines outline the books are owned by the school and should be returned by students at the end of the school year, and books are expected to be returned in good condition.
The Government believes that education should provide equality of opportunity to all. As with the funding provided in respect of the primary schoolbooks scheme, the funding provided under budget 2024 is specifically to provide free schoolbooks to students in junior cycle years in post-primary schools in the free education scheme from 2024.
Schools in the free education scheme are paid a range of grants based on a school's enrolment and may also apply for funding towards the cost of capital works. What differentiates fee-charging schools from all other post-primary schools is their capacity to raise funds through mandatory fees, while in receipt of Exchequer funding. The fees charged are mandatory in that initial admission to the fee-charging school or ongoing participation is contingent on the payment of fees.
Fee-charging post-primary schools are not grant funded in relation to book schemes. Book schemes in fee-charging post-primary schools are, therefore, a matter for the school's board of management.
In relation to supports provided by the Department to fee-charging schools, teachers are allocated to fee-charging post-primary schools on the basis of a pupil teacher ratio of 23:1. In early April, the Minister, Deputy Foley, announced funding to support digital learning in schools. Fee-charging schools will receive funding at a rate of 50%, that is, €1,000 lump sum and €23 per capita.
To assess the ongoing requirements of the junior cycle schoolbooks scheme post 2024-2025 school year, the Department is requesting all post-primary schools to complete and submit an income and expenditure report in respect of the 2024-2025 school year.
I am acutely aware of the various costs faced by families upon the return of their children to school each September. This important new permanent measure will significantly reduce the back-to-school financial burden for many families which have students enrolled in junior cycle years.
I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive answer.
While parents send their children to private schools, they continue to pay taxes that support the overall education system. No child should be discriminated against, as far as I am concerned. The allocation of public funds for education reflects the Government's priorities, societal values and the need to balance the complete demand for resources. These are parents and children are equal stakeholders in the education sector. As policymakers, we need to evaluate the implications on education's funding decisions on equity, access and the overall quality of education for all of our children and all of the students in education, and that includes the children within fee-paying education.
The introduction of the junior cycle schoolbook scheme is another historic moment in Irish education and helps us to live up to the promise of free education.
I want to thank the Senator for raising this Commencement matter and emphasise the significance of the funding for this ground-breaking scheme. I also want to acknowledge the enormous amount of work that has taken place since the scheme was announced in March to ensure that children and young people in junior cycle programmes in both mainstream post-primary in the free education scheme and in recognised special schools will have additional schoolbooks and classroom resources in place for the start of the year.
There are a number of other measures in place to support families in those back-to-school needs in terms of the back-to-school clothing and footwear scheme and the school meals programme. Certainly, it is not discriminatory at all and there are supports there for fee-paying schools.
This has been a transformative and ground-breaking scheme and certainly will help many thousands of families across the country.
Wildlife Protection
I thank the Minister of State for bring here personally today.
Four minutes does not seem long enough to summarise the four years it has taken for a local sports club, St, Oliver Plunkett Eoghan Ruadh "Plunkett's" GAA, to get to the point where a proposal for the redevelopment of Martin Savage Park, just off the Navan Road, was ready for a Part 8 planning process.
We have an issue when it comes to our parks in Dublin city. With an increase in development and the concentration of that development, our parks have to work harder and be used better for the growing and diverse populations they now serve. Unutilised parks and green spaces, whether that be for active or passive use in terms of biodiversity, is not an option anymore.
In the Navan Road area of Dublin West which Martin Savage Park would be in the heart of, we have 15,000 people, including more than 3,600 children who attend the local primary and secondary schools. Pelletstown, one of our newer areas of Dublin, or, as we know it, Ashtown, Rathborne and Royal Canal Park, is still being built and will have more than 3,500 homes and we do not have enough access to local sports club facilities.
Plunkett's GAA, a club with more than 1,350 members - with 600 families living in the area and 45% female membership where the average age is 25 years - has over 70 teams across all age groups, 400 volunteers and 150 children attending its nursery every week. They run an inclusive all-stars group for children with additional needs and have many other break-out groups, such as sheds, Gaelic mums, cycling and golf.
This club is currently over-delivering for a community under-served by community amenities. They need access to functional and basic club facilities to do that and they do not have them.
Currently, the clubhouse is situated beside Dublin city-owned Martin Savage Park where they have access to basic green pitches but these pitches are frequently waterlogged and unplayable for six months of the year. This year they have not be able to utilise them for 70% of the time. They cannot play on dark evenings because they do not have floodlights. They travel all around north Dublin to rent all-weather facilities or any facilities at short notice when matches, training sessions and - for instance, recently at Easter - kid-camps are cancelled.
Now it looks like their modest plans to rectify this with the addition of an all-weather pitch in Martin Savage Park are in disarray because of the presence of Brent geese or because Dublin City Council did not sufficiently prepare for the appropriate assessment in the Part 8 application in relation to the protection of Brent geese.
It is not like the presence of Brent geese or the statutory protections around them is new news. The site of the all-weather pitch in Martin Savage Park was chosen so as not to disturb them as one of the 139 playing field and other inland sites in the Dublin area that they use. We have knowledge from large-scale housing developments at St. Paul's College in Raheny, the old Cadbury sites which had been refused for development and where geese have been a consideration, and we have knowledge from an all-weather pitch application at St. Aidan's CBS in Dublin 9 which was given the green light. Everybody knew how important ensuring the conservation of the Brent geese was but with a stroke of a pen at the eleventh hour - a letter from the Department that states that this all-weather pitch in combination with the effects of other mooted developments of artificial pitches on playing field sites utilised by the Brent geese in the Dublin area - those proposals are in complete peril leaving a giant question mark over the delivery of essential sporting facilities for hundreds of adults and children in a local community. We are talking about 130 m by 70 m of a facility in an area of growth. Surely we have enough space for both the Brent geese to feed and our children to play.
The light-bellied Brent goose, Branta Bernicla Hrota, breeds in the Canadian high Arctic and winters, almost exclusively, on the island of Ireland. Under the European birds directive, the Brent goose is a protected species, and Ireland has designated a total of 23 special protection areas for the Brent goose, with one further SPA for which the species is listed as an additional special conservation interest. The identification and selection of sites for designation as SPAs was based on monitoring data over the winters 1995-1996 to 1999-2000, inclusive. It was estimated that 53% of the population that over-wintered on the island of Ireland during this period was supported by the 24 SPAs for which the species is listed.
The identification and designation of SPAs was based primarily on core wetlands that supported bird species and provided for their various ecological requirements. However, as many bird species regularly use areas outside of these core wetlands, not all areas utilised by a species were included within the SPA boundaries.
Within County Dublin six special protection areas, SPAs include the Brent goose as a special conservation interest, SCI. These are: North Bull Island SPA; Malahide Estuary SPA; Rogerstown Estuary SPA, which I visited recently; Baldoyle Bay SPA; South Dublin Bay SPA; River Tolka Estuary SPA; and Skerries Islands SPA.
The Brent goose is a grazing species and while over-wintering in Ireland the species feeds largely on eelgrass, green algae, and salt marsh vegetation in the intertidal zone. In Dublin and other urban areas the species shifts to graze on grasslands from midwinter as other foraging resources become depleted. This is why we see so many of them flying around our parks over the winter period.
During the period 2013 to 2017 the population of Brent goose over-wintering in Ireland was estimated to be 30,295 individuals. Analyses from the Irish wetland bird survey suggests that the population of Brent geese in Ireland increased by 93% between the winters of 1994, 1995 and 2018 to 2019, albeit with a noted 11% decline from the winter 2013 to 2014 and 2018 to 2019. The Irish wetland bird survey is co-ordinated by BirdWatch Ireland and under contract to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, with surveys undertaken by staff from both the National Parks and Wildlife Service and BirdWatch Ireland as well as hundreds of volunteers each winter.
Brent geese are well known to forage on improved and amenity grasslands such as parks and sports pitches with utilisation of these sites having increased since the 1970s. A study from 2012 to 2013 and 2016 to 2017 identified Brent geese using a total of 113 terrestrial inland feeding sites in Dublin city and environs. The abundance of suitable grasslands for foraging in the Dublin area is a likely factor in the noted increase in the Dublin Bay Brent goose population in recent years. The utilisation of public parks for all is a matter for relevant local authority in the management of their space for nature and other uses. Activities, plans or projects that affect a protected species or their habitats is grounded by legislation and must be considered by the relevant authority. The Senator mentioned the appropriate assessment for the development of Martin Savage Park. The local authorities are obliged to carry out their functions in compliance with various legislative and administrative requirements with respect to the conservation, protection and preservation of the natural and built heritage. I will come back with supplementary information to the Senator.
I know I am throwing a lot at the Minister of State this morning on this specific case. It is a huge problem if we cannot deliver essential sporting facilities for local children. An all-weather pitch should be a basic for a local sports club in facilitating so many people and actively encouraging well-being and health. It is a place where friendships and communities are created. They need an all-weather pitch. We are aware of the issues around the Brent goose and being sensitive to them but this is an issue that I feel has not had the necessary response. Where is the joined-up thinking? It should not be the case that a letter arrives in at the eleventh hour from the Minister of State's Department and that this is all in peril. We need to look at the bigger picture here. How do we ensure that we are able to protect the Brent geese but also protect our children's childhood and their ability to play in their local park for their local club?
I absolutely appreciate the challenge this has created. We are in the depths of a biodiversity crisis and it is important. Our urban areas and Dublin have a huge role to play around the species of wetland birds. We know that the Brent goose population has increased by 230% from 1994 and 1995 and from 2018 to 2019. It is quite a significant population increase, which suggests that it is a good thing in terms of the population increase of the birds. As the Senator has said, the appropriate assessment is important in looking at ways of finding additional sites or other foraging sites for the geese when they are over-wintering in Dublin. It would be important. I will talk to officials in the National Parks and Wildlife Service to engage with the biodiversity officers in Dublin City Council to perhaps see if there is a way forward here. Again, these are challenges of increased demand for public space and increased demand for amenity space as the population grows in Dublin city. I believe it is important that all species can live together and particularly in urban centres. There is an opportunity for the development of these playing pitches but also the protection of this really important species.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 11.35 a.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar meán lae.
Sitting suspended at 11.35 a.m. and resumed at 12 noon.