Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The point has been missed that it is great to come up with a plan and everything like that, but we cannot build classrooms, educate teachers or create school places in three or four months over the summer. In my constituency, school staff are coming to me saying they cannot take any more people. The schools are bursting at the seams. Children who should be getting additional resources are not receiving them. There are children, including Irish and Ukrainian children, being totally left behind. They are pushed into schools and that is it; the box is ticked. I spoke last weekend to a teacher from County Wexford who works in a primary school in Dublin that has DEIS status. She said she regrets going into teaching because of the pressures. She was under severe pressure at the start of the year and the situation is much worse now. She has six Ukrainian children who do not speak English in her class. Many pupils in this DEIS school have it tough and do not have supports at home. All of a sudden, there are six or seven Ukrainian children in the class who have no English.

The Government and the agencies must look at the reality of where we are today. There is no use giving the agencies additional resources next November, December, January or February. The current situation is totally unacceptable and should not be happening. Children are being pushed into classes that are full. It is all very well to take everybody and just throw them into classrooms but, in practice, it is not acceptable in my book. Can the witnesses tell us how Ireland compares with our European counterparts in this regard?