Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I look forward to working with everybody on this committee. We can achieve a lot. I am not going to go over what my colleagues mentioned already, but since I entered the Seanad, I have had the opportunity to visit several secondary schools and some primary schools. Most of them were already on the schools building programme. In the time it took to implement that programme, however, their needs had evolved and changed. I hope we can flesh out the detail of this process and see if there are ways we can address it over the term. I refer as well to the delays in temporary accommodation for capacity issues. This is another matter we need to examine and try to speed up and simplify that process for the schools we are dealing with.

Like Deputy O'Rourke, I am on the artificial intelligence committee. I believe there are many synergies here and there will be a great deal of correlation in that regard.

I look forward to fleshing that out with the whole committee as a method of preparing our students for the jobs in three, four or five years' time that we do not currently know exist. We must provide students with the tools to meet that demand. This will involve going further into the STEM subjects and giving students opportunities by tooling schools to deliver in that regard. I look forward to a collective conversation and discussion on that.

Like my colleagues have said, youth services and the youth element of this committee will be important. Issues around mental health - awareness and supports for young people - are vital, so must form a big part of the committee's work. I have already discussed this matter with Deputy Peter Roche.

The impact, limitations and risks of social media are all matters that we need to explore and discuss so that we can provide an outlet for schools and youth services to support young people in dealing with them.

I look forward to what we can do over the term of this committee.