Ms Fran Neary:

To respond to the Deputy McAuliffe's question on education and how we might be able to look at it in future, we need to look at the wider curriculum question nationwide. There is a huge target audience there and young people have a loud voice within their homes, whether speaking to their parents or to their siblings, and that carries a lot of power. We need to look at building a curriculum of topical content that is factual and can be delivered by skilled people within our schools, who can look at this in a reflective, creative and human way. There are two ways we need to look at it, one of which relates to building capacity within students such that they can navigate this topic and spread the word about it, while the other concerns vulnerable communities and dealing with the now. A school such as ours needs to examine how we can build capacity from primary school to senior cycle, because this is not going to go away.

The next question relates to how we can target and handle the now. Whether we like it or not, there were a lot of younger people on the marches through Ballymun, Finglas and other areas, from teenagers to smaller. When we asked them why they were there, some of them did not know why. They were there, they marched and got involved in some situations they should not have, and they went with that. It was attractive to get out there, march and be part of it. We can change that narrative by bringing them into that safe space, and schools are safe spaces in which to open that dialogue, have a healthy debate with children and give them a safe space where they can air those views.

To reiterate, there are two responses. One relates to dealing with the community and the response in the now, while the other concerns the national picture of how we are going to impact the curriculum nationwide to ensure this issue, which is not going to go away or be forgotten, will be dealt with properly in our education system, woven through all subjects in order that students will get a good understanding of it.