Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputy Harkin.

The Sinn Féin motion tonight is not directly on the return to school programme but it is going to be naturally caught up in all of that. The fact the motion was put down tonight meant the plan was brought forward. The Minister was supposed to announce this plan after we had all gone home next week, after the Dáil had risen for the summer. At least the plan has been announced and we can scrutinise it and talk about it in the House because it is vitally important. While the Sinn Féin motion may not be directly related to it, it is related in the long term, because what we have now is an opportunity to tackle the problems in our schools, such as class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios, once and for all. We can do it now if we embrace this properly.

The plan shows some costings on the number of teachers and commitments regarding teachers but those commitments may not be enough. I want to be sure every school can meet the requirements and get the teachers they need to meet the reduced the size numbers in the conditions that will be put in place and, also, when this Covid-19 emergency dies down, that those teachers will be maintained in that school and will actually serve to reduce the pupil-teacher ratios. That is vitally important.

One thing in the plan that needs to be stressed in these discussions, and one of the most important things that must happen in the schools, is that Covid-19 must be explained to all children at all levels to make sure there is no sense of emergency. They should be talked to and treated properly because that is vitally important.

The plan needs to be mentioned because several issues need to be highlighted. We need to make sure there are enough teachers. Much has been said tonight about the difficulty in recruiting teachers and the difficulty of where they will come from. The Minister said she is looking at that but we need to make sure they are there. That will take time in some schools but the plan and the cost needs to be there. It should not, and I hope it will not, be a cost issue that will not stop the delivery of teachers for schools because that would be a real blow. It will defeat anything the Minister is trying to do, and that we are all trying to do in terms of getting our schools back open.

Recognising that school transport is going to be an integral part of the overall working of schools is going to be vitally important. We cannot have a situation where school transport is left as an afterthought and the providers are left behind. We must make sure they are part of it and integral to it.

A special education teacher emailed me this evening to raise this issue in the house. I hope one of the Ministers will answer it directly in summing up. Special education teachers have been told they will be expected to provide substitution in their schools. This means the special education classes will be left without a teacher and the special education teachers will be used in substitution. I do not see that in the plan but, perhaps, some schools are sending out that message to their teachers. We need to send the message clearly to them tonight that will not be the case and that special education teachers and children with special education needs will be vitally important through the process and current numbers will have to be maintained. I would appreciate if the Minister would confirm that because it is vitally important.

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