Mr. Shari Irfan:

I thank the Deputy for her question. Eco-grief is not something that every age group faces; it seems to be particularly relevant to young people at the moment. The best way I can describe it is as being a very doom and gloom feeling. We sit and wonder, "Will I ever have a family? Will I ever have a home? Will I have a life?" What we are seeing on the news is landfills, houses being burnt down, fires all around and the climate changing. It affects people we may know. Young people are sitting there thinking, "That is going to be my life." All the figures currently show that Ireland is in a unique position. We are going to be affected by it but we are quite lucky because developed nations are not really affected to the same extent as developing nations. That is where eco-grief comes from. Young people sit and wonder, "What will my life look like as this continues?"

As for the supports in place, as I have said, guidance counsellors are the key people who should be there to deal with this. Not every school has a guidance counsellor, however. Not every school has a guidance counsellor who is trained to deal with this. This is a big discussion about resources and making sure that guidance counsellors are in schools at a ratio proportionate to the population, as well as making sure they have the right skills and resources to be able to deal with these issues.

Climate action and sustainable development is a subject in itself. I sit on the council of members of the NCCA, as well as on forums within the Department of Education. As students, we have had a very active input into curriculum development on that particular subject. We are happy with how it is and believe it touches on the most key areas. We are very proud of our part in the implementation relating to student participation. The curriculum actively teaches young people to be proactive. It teaches them how to protest, organise and make their voices heard. For the most part we are satisfied, but I am concerned about the roll-out. I am aware from my engagements with the Department of Education that schools are hesitant about taking on the subject. That is natural with new subjects coming in, but we also have to keep in mind that it is a new subject. Not every school is going to have the resources required. We are struggling with the teacher retention and recruitment crisis at the moment. How are we going to bring in teachers to teach that particular subject?