Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the House for the opportunity to discuss the very positive response on the part of the education system and school communities to those seeking refuge in Ireland.

The very best and most insightful aspect of my job as Minister for Education is the opportunity I am afforded to visit schools across the country. In nearly every school I visit there are students who have recently arrived to Ireland either from Ukraine or through the IPAS system. These are children and young people who are compelled to leave their homes, often leaving family members behind. Too many have witnessed unspeakable tragedies. For these young people, school is now a place of normality where they can achieve some semblance of a routine and, I hope, focus on their well-being, friends and education. This is only made possible as a consequence of the incredible generosity and dedication of principals, teachers, special needs assistants, school secretaries, school caretakers, fellow students, boards of management and broader school and local communities. My Department is determined to continue its support for these huge efforts we are seeing from school communities throughout the country.

Members will appreciate the scale of the response when we consider that well over 65,000 people have arrived here from Ukraine alone since the beginning of the war almost a year ago. Figures show that over 14,500 children from Ukraine have now enrolled in schools in every county in the State. To date, approximately 9,000 children from Ukraine have enrolled in primary schools while over 5,000 are in our post-primary schools. Among the Ukrainian children and young people who are here, this represents an enrolment rate of 93%. This is one of the highest such rates among our European peer nations.

I have always known, and said, that education relies on a partnership-based approach in which we all work together to provide for our children and young people. For this reason, the Department moved immediately to establish regional education and language teams, REALTs, across the country to co-ordinate school enrolments for Ukrainian families. The remit of the REALTs was subsequently extended to include supporting children who are in the international protection system. I acknowledge the superb work of these teams. Schools that are catering for children fleeing the war in Ukraine and other migrant children are provided with resources to ensure they are supported in their education. Additional teaching resources have been granted to support schools in their work. Additional special educational needs supports and advice, and support and well-being, have also been provided. The issue of appropriate language supports is an important one. The allocation of specialist resources to schools takes account of the needs of pupils in this regard and figures show that nearly 2,000 schools have applied for and are now receiving English as an additional language, EAL, teaching resources.

As I said, our schools have done an incredible job. We have had capacity within our schools. We are conscious that capacity is challenging, in some places more than in others. We continue to work with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and his Department to meet any challenges going forward. On the whole, we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to our school communities for the excellent work they do every single day.

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