Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure he does but he is not getting my time for them.

Teachers have gone to extraordinary lengths and it is fair to recognise that others have also made a contribution, such as "Cúla4 ar Scoil" on TG4 and "Home School Hub" on RTÉ. While they are not as good as the ordinary school experience, they have helped put shape on the day for parents and children, including my family. Where else would we learn to put together a pyramid with spaghetti and jelly babies?

It is undoubtedly the case, and this is disputed by no one, that children have lost out. This is particularly the case for children living in emergency accommodation, children with special educational needs and children living in chaotic home environments. There is no doubt but that educational disadvantage has been exacerbated. All concerned want to see a return to school as soon as is possible because no one wants the current situation to last a minute longer than necessary.

Reopening school buildings for education is not like turning on a tap. There are many ways to do this with many elements but fundamentally there are two ways. There is a proper way that involves schools opening up with the confidence and consent of parents, students and teachers and there is the way that involves making a hames of it through a lack of consultation or through haste. The first will allow schools to reopen and stay open and gradually get education back to something resembling normal but the latter will entirely undermine that objective. I have spoken to a number of schools and they have yet to be consulted or hear a single thing from the Department on reopening. This is not good enough. If there is to be a road map back to some shape of normality for the economy, the least schools deserve is a road map for education.

Capacity will be an enormous issue. Most of our school buildings are not fit to hold the numbers they hold generally, not to mind with social distancing. We need guidance and consultation with schools and we need to use the time we have between now and when schools reopen to plan and give people confidence. While it is the case that people are frustrated, they are also still nervous and need reassurance. If there are to be pilots or if some schools are to open before others, it should be on the basis of the key priorities in terms of special education and disadvantage. It also needs to be on a voluntary basis on the part of students and staff.

I want to return to the issue of school profiling, which we have discussed on several occasions. The safeguards the Minister believes exist are not adequate. There is not an equal distribution of children across schools. In fact, schools magnify the disadvantage felt by communities. It is a fact that a school could have the results of its students, which are marked diligently and conscientiously by the teachers, revised downwards simply because of results in the past.

A strong cohort which bucks the trend that existed in a school before now will not get the grades it deserves. In Britain, research has found that more than one in five schools had expected to have large changes in the percentage of A* to C English GCSE results between 2014 and 2015 and this was only partially attributed to teaching quality. Every cohort is different in every school. In a single school it can be radically different. These students deserve to be treated on their own merits. The Minister has instanced junior certificate results three years prior and, in his speech, minimised the emphasis on them in the calculation generally, as a safeguard. It is unclear now whether that is factored in before adjustments or after concerns are raised by a student at school. I do not think it is justified to have it there at all. If the Minister is confident in the calculated grades approach, and I wish the best of luck to Dr. Lawlor in her approach, he should trust the system of alignment and appeals along with a randomised checking system to ensure a standard.

Some of these injustices can be if not resolved then, perhaps, minimised by opening up additional third level places. Many of the 14,000 students who come here annually from abroad are not coming now, leaving many places vacant. Universities alone are facing a shortfall of €374 million. It seems clear that Government will have to step in to solve this funding crisis. However, the investment that is needed can also focus on delivering additional places for those who have done the leaving certificate by investing in Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, and access programmes such as Here and There. Already SUSI is inadequate and people turn down offers made to them because they cannot afford to live in Dublin, Cork or Galway, even with the full grant. That brings me on to a query regarding SUSI on which I wrote to the Minister and am still awaiting a response. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs recently, many of them permanently. Many do not know if or when their workplaces will reopen, especially in retail, hospitality, bar and restaurant work. It is totally unclear whether those who are uncertain as to the future of closed businesses will be entitled to SUSI for their children. This affects countless students who may not be able to afford college without the grant. Can the Minister clarify that for me?

I also want to flag my particular concern around students outside of traditional school settings, especially those without formal tuition. Everyone in the leaving certificate of 2020 deserves the chance to get into third level and a solution needs to be found for those students.

I know Deputy Wynne, and perhaps Deputy Tully, will also raise this issue. We need clarity on July provision. I welcome the commitment the Minister has made to it but an awful lot more detail is needed.

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