Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for reaching out to our party after the loss of Niamh Bhreathnach, a former Minister for Education. We appreciated the Minister's condolences and kind comments to our party and to her family. Niamh was associated with the original Breaking the Cycle scheme, so I will initially speak about DEIS.

As the Minister outlined, there has been an investment and approximately 25% of all schools now fall under the DEIS programme. I appeal to her about possibly having an extra stratum of DEIS, such as a DEIS plus, for acutely disadvantaged schools that may need to be given extra priority. I will leave that remark there, though, particularly as the Minister referred to the ongoing review of DEIS.

The Minister's comments on class sizes are welcome. I commend her on reducing class sizes within DEIS schools as well.

There is a different staffing schedule for DEIS and non-DEIS schools but the Department has done both simultaneously, so that is welcome.

As was mentioned, the free school books scheme is due to be rolled out in September. It is limited to primary schools and I can appreciate that because a second level scheme would be much more complex. However, principals are beginning to ask when they will get information on it, how it will be operational, if it is an opt-in and opt-out scenario, and if there will be a mandate of every school. There have been school book rental schemes where not every school took them up. I want to get some more clarity on the proposal because we do not want a situation where some schools just do not opt in and parents who may really be in need of this scheme are not able to avail of it.

On school transport, will we have the same scheme as last year for next September? There are still issues and my colleague in Cork, Peter Horgan, says that, in Mount Oval in Cork, 50 children are still off the bus. I want to get clarity on that.

School places in second level education are becoming a real issue. Does the Minister anticipate a scenario where the Department may have to provide more school places in particular pinch points in the commuter belt around Dublin or in Dublin itself for schools that are massively oversubscribed? The Minister knows my position on the 25% of school places that can be set aside for children or grandchildren of past pupils, and we would seek her support for the fast-tracking of that Bill. That being said, is the Department looking at those pinch points?

On counselling services, more funding will be needed for the school completion programme counselling services. What is the Minister’s view on that? Has she identified schools that will be involved in the €5 million mental health counselling programme that is due to start in September 2023?

I have two last points and I appreciate that I am throwing a lot at the Minister. I refer to the results date for the 2023 leaving certificate. It was indicated last year that we would have similar problems around the resourcing of the marking of exams and the timing of those results in 2023. Does the Minister have a sense of when that might be or how late it would be?

My last point is on the reconfiguration of schools, and I have an issue in Raheny in my constituency. I would ask the Department to take more ownership of that process. If the roll-out of the review or consultation in Raheny is anything to go by, none of these processes will be successful. It led to quite a bit of chaos, a lot of division and not much light out of it at the end. I just wanted to make that point. I would appreciate it if the Minister would reflect on the points I have made.