Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a very significant challenge. I acknowledge the excellent work being done by schools, by REALT and by school communities. I also acknowledge the Department has been under very severe pressure on this. I am sure not everything is perfect but significant work is going on. I acknowledge the work of the Department in ensuring these children who are coming from a very grim situation are getting an education. I commend it on that.

We have talked a little about additional educational needs. The numbers in that regard are small but, generally speaking, when it comes to additional needs, we can be sure the vast majority of children coming to Ireland will have suffered a fairly severe trauma. Some of the impacts of that may take time to play out and it may take time before these children feel they are in a position to articulate that trauma. Are we looking at the budget for additional counsellors within schools, or additional therapeutic supports or anything like that? It is not just about the child. Schools themselves may not have the skills to help or be able to respond to a child's needs in a trauma-informed way. That can be very challenging.

I can see where we are at with the numbers but at some stage in the midst of this, the Taoiseach talked about potentially 200,000 Ukrainians, or at least in excess of 100,000, coming here. It is probably not possible to have a picture in the long term but what has the pattern been for the past month or two? Is there any way of having a projection of the capacity that will be needed within the next 12 months? Is that possible at all?

I will briefly pick up on a point Deputy Ó Ríordáin made on the case of the children in the northside of Dublin who ended up being brought down to Youghal. In addition to all the points made about settling in, a practical consideration is that some of those children had bought a uniform and so on. It might be worth putting out the message that for a while, until there is a clearer picture about where these children will end up, there should be flexibility regarding things such as uniform.

I will make a specific point about secondary schools. Ukrainian children who are coming towards the end of secondary school are in a very challenging place because the learning is of a much higher order. Even the English language support would generally be of a different nature, because people who might require additional support would usually have some, whereas some of these Ukrainian children might have none at all. Are some of them being integrated remotely with Ukrainian education? What way can they be supported? Is it worth those children sitting the leaving certificate or should they be sitting Ukrainian exams? I have no answers to that myself; I am just asking the question.

The Minister engaged previously with the Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science, Serhiy Shkarlet. I engaged with him myself during an online event. One of the matters I brought up with him was that if there are Ukrainian teachers here, one of the challenges may be Garda vetting. I ask for an update on how that is going. Even with the best will in the world, I am sure the Ukrainian police are under very severe pressure, as is the rest of civil society.