Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit agus leis na Teachtaí go léir a labhair sa díospóireacht ar oideachas. On behalf of the Labour Party, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, for their contributions and the support of all colleagues in the House who spoke on this important motion we in the Labour Party have submitted. I commend in particular Deputy Ó Ríordáin, our education spokesperson, who crafted the motion and spoke so powerfully about it. Our aim in tabling the motion is to see an improvement and build upon progress that has been made, and to acknowledge where more needs to be done to make our education system better for children. We have all acknowledged the progress that has been made and we have acknowledged fairly what more needs to be done.

I wish to acknowledge a couple of transformative moments in the history of the education system in this State, starting with one related to a former Minister for Education from the Minister of State's party, namely, Mr. Donogh O'Malley, who in September 1966 made an historic speech announcing he would introduce free secondary school education with effect from 1967. At the time he made that groundbreaking announcement, 17,000 children finishing primary school education each year did not go on to second level. Consider the great progress that resulted from the announcement and the major contribution it made to the well-being and prosperity of our society.

Another transformative moment, which Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke about and which the Minister, Deputy Foley, acknowledged, relates to the enormous contribution of a Labour Party colleague, former Minister for Education Niamh Bhreathnach, who, sadly, died earlier this year but who, in her time as Minister, introduced pioneering reforms, notably the abolition of third level fees and the Breaking the Cycle programme, which she introduced in the 1990s. This programme would later be developed into the DEIS programme. As a result, we now see an enormous improvement in school completion rates and how we tackle poverty. We all know education is the key route out of poverty and disadvantage. Our motion seeks to build on these issues.

In the brief amount of time I have before I hand over to my colleague Deputy Duncan Smith, I want to refer to three aspects of our motion in respect of which I believe things should and must improve. The first relates to school building. Colleagues have raised the issue of the 58 schools in respect of which we know building has been slowed down, delayed or paused. This is of genuine concern to all of us. I have raised this issue with the Minister and indeed the Taoiseach because it has affected four urgent school construction projects in my constituency, Dublin Bay South: Shellybanks Educate Together National School and Sandymount Park Educate Together Secondary School, both in Sandymount, and the two Educate Together schools, both primary and secondary, in Harold's Cross.

I have had occasion to visit the campuses in Sandymount and Harold's Cross recently. These are hugely successful and rapidly growing school communities that are already outgrowing the buildings on site. They have been promised urgent construction on what are already busy sites and we learned very recently that the building works have been paused. This is causing consternation and distress among affected parents, children and school communities. The Taoiseach provided me with an assurance in the Dáil last week that additional funding would be provided this year to those four schools and others affected to ensure the resumption of the necessary works, but I noted that the Minister's contribution did not commit to that funding being provided this year so I ask the Minister of State to take this issue back to the Minister and the Government to ensure we see urgent progressing of paused construction works, not just in my constituency but also in respect of other affected schools.

Others have spoken about school patronage. I very much welcome the Minister's commitment to see 400 multidenominational schools in place by 2030. However, I am concerned by the Taoiseach's recent remarks that he would not support a forced secularisation of the education system. That is a bad faith interpretation of what is proposed. All of us want to see the necessary choices for parents. All of us recognise the increasing number of parents who are choosing multidenominational schooling for their children and who want to move away from the former domination of our school system by the Catholic church in particular but by church doctrine, so I want to put that on the record.

In respect of autism and special needs and the significant need for children with special needs to have accommodation and decent and effective education systems, we still have far too many children who are left in limbo and with delays in diagnosis and finding school places. I pay tribute to the parents in my constituency: Involve Autism: D6/D6W & Surrounds; Neurodiversity Irishtown, Ringsend and Pearse Street; and Neurodiversity Sandymount, among other organisations who are working so hard to secure necessary places for their children. I appeal to the Minister of State to ensure the necessary resources are committed in terms of special needs assistants, SNAs, units and special classrooms to ensure all our children get the education they so urgently need.

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