Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Politics can be a difficult and harsh game but we in the Labour Party do not see it as our job to make the Minister feel uncomfortable over the next number of years. In fact, I want to be in a position to congratulate the Minister as often as I possibly can. There are certain issues in Irish public policy that go beyond the over and back, Punch and Judy style of politics and education should be one of those. We are in an historic situation where for the first time in the history of the State there is a question mark over the leaving certificate and over the reopening of schools in September. I do not believe that happened during the Second World War and am pretty sure that it was the mammoth task the Minister took it to be when she took over her role. On that basis, the Minister is deserving of congratulations and her Department is deserving of great credit for the fact that the schools are opened and that on the really dangerous part of the assessed grade system, the school profiling, they did listen.

There are two different types of Opposition speeches and politicking. One is where members come into the Chamber hoping that what they are raising will not be adhered to by the Government because then they can keep complaining about it. Sometimes they put down an amendment to legislation, hoping that the Government will not adopt it so that they can keep giving out about it. There is a different type of Opposition where members raise something that they genuinely, earnestly hope that the Government will take on board because it comes from a place of deep concern and understanding. In fairness to the Minister, we raised the school profiling issue again and again and it was with great joy that we learned a number of days ago that the Minister had listened to the concerns raised and had acted upon them.

That type of politics does this House some credit and I thank the Minister most sincerely for the moves she has made and for taking on the responsibility of opening up our schools.

Obviously, there will be issues over the coming months and I know the Minister appreciates that. We are not going to agree on everything. Perhaps we will not even agree on most things. At the same time, if we are determined to work together in some capacity, we might actually achieve some things.

Many schools were not in a position to tell the true story of the difficulties they had because every school runs on the basis of reputation. If those running schools start telling the world that the schools cannot open because of lack of space or whatever, it could potentially reflect poorly on them. Every September many schools are concerned about the numbers necessary to keep teachers and resources etc. There can be a conspiracy of silence sometimes whereby schools are so determined to keep their reputations going that they will soldier on and not put their heads above the parapet.

School transport is an issue. It falls between the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We need a dedicated unit so that Members of the Oireachtas and school boards of management can access a dedicated unit swiftly to get answers to the transport questions arising.

It has been said that we need not only to open schools but to keep schools open. The testing regime for teachers, special needs assistants and other school staff, including secretaries and caretakers, has been prioritised by teaching unions and the Minister is responding to this.

At the briefing earlier today, I raised the issue, as the Minister is aware, of those who are over 16 years of age and, therefore, have no legal requirement to be in school. I was comforted and satisfied by the answer Department officials gave that the Minister is aware of the issue of the potential for a lost generation of young people, that the Minister is alive to that fact and that resources will be made available to schools to ensure that no young person is lost from the system.

The final thing I will say on this matter is what Covid-19 has done, as in other areas of the economy and society, is it has ripped open the plaster covering deficiencies in the system, including the relationship between the Department and individual schools, the fact that the Department does not like to engage in the day-to-day management of schools and the amount of autonomy given to school boards of management and patron bodies that really should be part of the role of the Department. These are historical constitutional matters that I want to raise in the Citizens' Assembly on primary and secondary education. I know the Minister has committed to that in the programme for Government.

We are determined to work with the Minister to find solutions. There has been enough distress, uncertainty, chaos and tears over the leaving certificate and the school system in recent months without politicians adding to it. We need to talk about the leaving certificate in 2021 and what last year's fifth year, or this year's sixth year, students are going to face. We must have some recognition in the system of the difficulties they had last year and we need to think of the kind of system we put in place for them. I hope the Minister takes the Labour Party's bona fides at face value. We genuinely want to find solutions.

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