Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The global learning and observation to benefit the environment, GLOBE, project for schools in partnership with An Taisce, is a two-year pilot programme which began in 2017. I used to read a lot of the EPA's stuff as a child in libraries back in the day. There was limited material to read in Westmeath and without divulging my age, I was of the first generation of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. On the EPA's practices and what it feeds into the school's programme, does the EPA have a comprehensive method of self-auditing? For example, the slogan used to be Recycle and now it is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, so things change over time. My point is that I have a serious concern about who gets in at our children's psyches in school and is about the remit and clearance for ideas the EPA or An Taisce might have, as well as for laying those ideas in front of young children in school. Many times they are very good practices and children seem to lead the way on different types of recycling and on the conservation of water but what sort of barriers and protections are there for parents who would not naturally have expected that the EPA or An Taisce would have any involvement in their children's educational curriculum?