Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I can think of a one little man who I worked with who would go home to his and would say to her, "I need to be able to bring my football to school because if I can bring my football to school, I will be able to make friends." As a great mother, she went into the school to ask why he cannot bring a football. The schools said they only use their footballs. I responded: "Hold on a second, what is the story with this football?" There were different pods because of Covid. There was a line in the school and students were not allowed to go over to the other pods. When the fifth class and sixth class students kicked over the ball by mistake, he would get the ball, throw it back to them and get great attention. In his mind if he could get a football, he would have friends, but with his SNA and teachers having their lunch break there was not support at lunchtime to help him make friends. He would be getting suspended because he was breaking the rules and being too rough to try get the ball to get the friends. If we could weave that piece throughout, we would have the right support.