Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy very much. I will take her last point first. The Deputy is right. I do not want to keep repeating myself but we have to have a curriculum that meets the demands of the day. There is absolutely no doubt about that. Extensive consultation was undertaken by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. There was engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, including parents, students and everybody else. There was significant engagement with people. It was very clear that issues around wellness and social, personal and health education were very much to the fore and there had to be increased space for them within the curriculum. We are all conscious of the impact of Covid and the emphasis we now need to put on supporting children and young people. We all speak about that all of the time. We are making strides in that respect. We are introducing a pilot programme of counselling in our primary schools and so on. Notwithstanding that, other initiatives are required. To do that, we have had to look at every single subject area within the curriculum. There was not a single-minded determination to focus on Irish. It was right across the board. Everything has been impacted here.

With specific regard to Irish, at the junior stages - junior infants and senior infants, there is no change at all to the teaching of language 2. The timeframe is the same. There is a change in stages 2, 3 and 4, which run from first class to sixth class. There is a reduction of 30 minutes. Notwithstanding that, this thing called flexitime is being given back to the school. This means that a block of up to seven hours is made available to the schools. The teacher or the school makes a judgment and decides where students need additional support. If that need relates to the Irish language, the students get the time for the Irish language. If the need is elsewhere, they get the time in that area. There is something respectful of the professionalism of the school in recognising that teachers know best what level their students are at in a particular subject. We are giving that autonomy back to them.

With regard to the work of the NCCA, the NCCA is made up of people who come from all stakeholder backgrounds in education, including parents, teachers and anyone else who is needed. This reduction in time we are speaking of has been balanced out by the flexitime given back to the school. There is a considerable emphasis on this never being decided on the basis of what the children and young people are studying at a given time. If we take that narrow view of the language, we do not serve ourselves well. It has to be about much more. It has to be about the culture, the music and the heritage. All of that is happening within the school. Equally, there are other opportunities within the school. For example, there is the content and language integrated learning project whereby PE is being taught through Irish. We are looking at many different initiatives within the school. It is not just about this reduction of time but, again, in the interests of fairness, this is not unique to the Irish language.

With regard to the Deputy's reference to the exemptions, we have to acknowledge in the first instance that we have seen an enormous increase in the number of young people who are attending our schools who have additional needs. That is a very good thing. We want children and young people to have a place in school and to be supported there. If you are in a special class or a special school, you have an automatic exemption. By the end of 2023, we will have almost 3,000 special classes. There has been exponential growth in the provision of special classes over the past two years. That has added to the number of exemptions. There is no doubt about that.

We have also had an enormous increase in the number of children coming from abroad. More than 15,000 young people have come into the system from Ukraine alone. There is an exemption for those who have come from abroad who are aged 12 or who have completed their primary education. In some jurisdictions - Ukraine may be one of them - primary school is finished at an early age, perhaps ten years of age. Such children are automatically exempted. All of that is feeding into an increased number of exemptions. It is also fair to say there is a decrease in the number of exemptions at primary level. We have seen an increase in the number of exemptions at post-primary level but, as I have said, that is largely due to the number of students accessing exemptions from a special education point of view. The vast majority of exemptions are being given to students who are identified as having special educational needs.

The other question the Deputy raised related to Mullingar.

I will go back to the planning and building unit for that. That is what you call passing the buck.