Ms Evelyn O'Connor:

I will respond. I thank the Deputy for raising those points. Those are good concerns and points to raise. First, as the Deputy knows, we have a new, redeveloped curriculum coming in from September 2025. We currently already have education for sustainable development in the curriculum. Its themes and principles are embedded across a number of subjects, particularly geography and science, but with the new specification that we will be bringing in, social and environmental education, it will come more to the fore.

Regarding agency, we are very conscious that they need to give children more agency. In the primary curriculum, as redeveloped, and under the primary curriculum framework, which was published last year, we set to do that and it is one of our aims. Our professional services have already been working with teachers to help them learn how to give children more agency. The Deputy is right that the CPD is very important, as is the ITE, which he mentioned. Regarding the initial teacher education, ITE, education for sustainable development is now part of the mandate in all programmes in ITE. That will give teachers a good grounding before they leave the ITE.

On the new curriculum coming in, we in the Department are working closely with Oide, our professional support services, to develop a comprehensive programme of support not just for this new specification but for all the new specifications coming in. This will involve seminars, webinars, in-school support, online support and development of resources. That will be over a number of years to help imbed and to help them understand the principles outlined in the primary curriculum framework, including giving more agency to the children.

Regarding the leaving certificate subject, I will hand over to my colleague, Esther Doyle.