Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

It is okay, I forgive the Cathaoirleach. Céad míle fáilte to our witnesses. What came across today is the tender loving care that is being given to our most vulnerable kids. All kids deserve it but it is often lacking in what should be a secure place: a home. I need to announce my partisanship here, which is that I am on the board of St. James's Primary School, which was my old primary school back in the day under a different name. It certainly is a happy place and a challenging place. They went through an extremely tough time prior to the summer with an encampment outside the school for months prior to the summer, and it is an entrance for three schools. The tensions, aggressions and assaults were horrific and I thank Mr. Cronin in particular who managed that situation. He referenced that 40% of the students in the school are of different nationalities and they were going in and out of this encampment. It was extremely scary and aggressive. There was a lot of stuff going on and it was managed very well. These are the hidden things principals have to put up with. That is important. The school is one of the most vulnerable in the city. Apart from that it is a good story, we came through it and hopefully a lot has been repaired.

I do not know who is the right person to answer this, but Tusla’s report got the message out today about chronic school absences. They are at 22%. Though they have improved, they have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Is there any data, whether written research or otherwise, about whether those with additional vulnerabilities and extra needs who require extra care are more likely to miss school and be chronic absentees? If so, are there reasons for that?

We discussed SNAs. They sit there and hold on to the child, in particular children with violent, disruptive, challenging behaviours. They hold quieter children also. SNAs are very important, as are home liaison and home outreach representatives. Is there anything else that could be done and has been found to be positive in attracting children to the school? This applies especially to the vulnerable children who might not have the verbal skills of five- and six-year-olds who are demanding of their parents to go to school.

The children's ombudsman has come out strongly on protecting children's needs along with those of children with additional needs, highlighting the lack of school places and school transport issues. The whole system seems to have cracked in that we are constantly engaging with parents in trying to beg for places. How difficult must it be to say people are not on the list this time or this year when parents hear that year in, year out. How difficult that task must be. Once people get a place, there is the question of whether school transport or a bus is available to them. Since I returned to the school in August, that has been up there as an issue.

It is lovely to hear Inclusion Ireland representatives, but they are singing the language of the Government, which holds the purse strings, when they say it is not necessarily about extra funding but the allocation of funding and the flexibility of the autonomy of each school or groups of schools or part of the school with checks and balances and good governance.

That is something that would need to be highlighted in the report from this committee. It is not about asking for much extra but an adjustment and allowing the funding to be placed where it is needed, as opposed to the rigid system we have at the moment.

I again thank the witnesses. I am blow-in to this committee. It is not my committee. I had to come to the meeting to offer my support. St. James's Primary School rocks.