Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Chair for that question. Specifically, one of the new subjects in our post-primary schools from 2025 will be climate action and sustainability. It speaks to the great interest from young people. I give full credit to them, as they have very much put it on the agenda. As a society, we are very much following their lead in many instances here. I also see in schools the phenomenal work they do around the Green-Schools initiative. There is nobody more conscious in schools about energy-saving initiatives and great work is being done by students in that regard. A cross-curricular approach is also being taken. I do not believe that any kind of learning should be just siloed into one particular subject. It needs to cross over into many different subjects. Similar issues are being drawn up in other subjects where that awareness is being flagged.

We also have the education for sustainable development strategy at primary level and it is being rolled out. We are very conscious of it but, as I said, I give full credit to the students themselves for the work they do in that space.