Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their detailed submissions. I welcome that we have been able to bring so many of the representative groups and unions to speak to the committee about mental health.

A number of the members of this committee also sit on the education committee and like me, on the mental health committee, which is a brand-new sub-committee of the health committee. We see many concerns being raised, especially during the two years of lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. I have a few questions which I will pose and hopefully allow some time for a short response.

I agree with a point mentioned by the witnesses in their submissions that the transition phase is crucial, especially going into first class, first year and from secondary school to third level. I agree that transition period is a huge issue and note that Ms Leydon of the ASTI also mentioned it.

I have a few questions about the summer programme. It is about the investment we are now seeing coming from the budget into education. Some €9.6 billion is going to education with almost €2.6 billion going to special education. We will have almost 40,000 new staff, that is almost 20,000 SNAs and almost 20,000 special education teachers coming into the system. Mr. Honer is representing SNAs at the committee. I want to see the courses that UCD is rolling out being rolled out around the country. We will tackle getting 20,000 people their well-deserved qualifications. That has to happen. The Minister is aligned with how we see that being rolled out. As I represent the Roscommon-Galway area, I want to see much of it in the west.

I refer to the number of people who are coming into the school system and how that has been managed as a teaching staff. There is a cohort of teaching staff working with the special education teachers, including the mainstream teacher in the classroom and the SNA support. I would like to see it being more streamlined and I see that in schools I deal with in my area on that level. Does Mr. Honer have any more comments on that?

I might ask our guests from the ASTI and the INTO some questions about the summer programme. We have just announced funding on that and we are seeing one quarter of schools taking part. I have contacted schools in my area and I have good feedback from a number of principals about the impact of those two weeks, particularly for those schools. Are there any other challenges? We have a budget and we have this extra capacity coming to schools. They have also opened up the possibility that student teachers and different cohorts could be involved. Will we see anything with schools coming on board this year? It would be great to see a real increase in that. Are there any other challenges in that which we need to be conscious of? That bringing students in over the summer period helps with the transition piece.

The funding models, pilot programmes and so on are crucial because most initiatives we see come from pilots. The initiatives we have seen at third level came from pilot programmes. We are seeing technological universities being rolled out, which has been amazing in delivering excellence to the regions. We have spoken about mental health supports here but we have to look at how we deliver health in a different way. Much of this is now coming through telehealth and is being accessed in a virtual way for early intervention. We need to look at changing how we deliver healthcare at an early stage sometimes. I would be interested to hear comments on that as well, because the 50808 text number is a 24-7 one that is crucial for anyone going through anxiety or any type of stress.

The changes we see in the roll-out of the leaving certificate programme are something else we have been fighting for. It should not all be pinned on one exam and that does not deliver for all students and for all capacities and capabilities. We have the action plan on bullying and this committee did a report on that, which was one of our first reports. The Minister for Education has taken on board a number of elements of that. There has also been €5 million rolled out for that for primary schools. There has been an increase in NEPS with about 54 more psychologists coming on board in that.

My questions begin with the summer programme, particularly the transition and how we increase the number of schools taking on that programme this year when we have the funding available for it. I also invite comments on the engagement with CAMHS and community teams that has been mentioned. How do we set up a structure where the secondary school system can engage with our new disability teams in the community space, particularly in the community healthcare organisations, CHOs? On the counselling supports and the action plan on bullying, each school has an ethos and parents sometimes have to look at what the ethos of each school is. In the inspector's annual report, reference is being made to how bullying is being managed in each school. With this new recommendation from the action plan, we will hopefully see this. What are the witnesses’ comments on that? How will schools engage in that action plan on bullying and how will they manage it? These are the matters I see as being of interest. I might start with the transition and I invite Ms Leydon to speak on that from ASTI's point of view. Mr. Honer might come in on the SNAs.