Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Minister of State and officials from the Department of Education and thank them for their time.

Obviously the students coming here from Ukraine have endured a lot of trauma, upset and stress. I very much welcome what the Minister and Minister of State said about the importance of the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, teams and the educational psychologists that are there to support these children. As the Minister noted in her opening statement, more than 30,000 people have come here from Ukraine, including more than 6,000 children. As I understand it, there are approximately 4,000 Ukrainian children in primary school and the remainder are in secondary school.

The Regional Education and Language Teams, REALTs, are important in terms of securing school places. I ask the Minister and Minister of State to comment on whether there have been challenges in that regard. An update provided on 13 May by way of a press release from the Department shows that in my area of Roscommon and Galway, there were 208 children at primary school and 94 at post primary in the Galway area, while Roscommon had lower numbers, with 64 at primary school and just nine at secondary level. Have there been challenges around school capacity? I am very aware of schools in my area where there would be challenges, particularly in some urban settings. How is it working in the more rural schools?

The Minister of State mentioned that the NCSE personnel are a crucial part of the teams that are being rolled out from the ETBs. How is that working from the perspective of the Special Education Needs Organisers, SENOs, and the NCSE? Have there been any challenges in accessing places? I am very appreciative of the fact that St. Teresa's Special School in Ballinasloe got funding for additional accommodation. How do we ensure we have adequate capacity?

The Minister also mentioned educational welfare services, working with the HSE disability services and English language supports, which are absolutely crucial. We are focusing here on children who are under 18 but I have a query based on meeting a lot of Ukrainian families who have been living here for decades and whose grandparents are now coming here. They are bringing their older family members here from Ukraine. Is there any English language support or training through ESOL tutors being offered through the ETBs to them? I accept that this is a little outside the remit of the Department and the primary and post-primary sectors.

I have one other question for the Minister relating to senior cycle students and career guidance teachers. A lot of support is being provided to schools through the REALTs to help students but what about the career guidance teachers and the options for Ukrainian senior level students? Of particular interest is the Further Education and Training Course Hub, FETCH, whereby students can attend local ETBs and do not have to travel, which keeps costs low for students.