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

I am talking about a specific group of schools that the Minister referenced. I have met them. A letter was written by 30 or so principals in extremely disadvantaged schools in Tallaght, Ballymun and Dublin 17 in my constituency. They are witnessing things they never witnessed before. They are talking about intergenerational trauma. They say the Covid pandemic had a profoundly damaging effect on these children. They say to me that some children are being lost for good and forever because of a lack of supports. I spoke to one principal who said that because of a particular feud that is happening in the geographic region that she teaches in, they have to change the way that they walk to swimming every week because a child might be shot. This is profound disadvantage. The only chance they have is their school, their education and the supports that their families might get. They are asking for an expansion of the north east inner city multidisciplinary teams model to include all schools in their cluster, for nurture rooms, and for the expansion of the support teacher service. We do not need to chew over this for a prolonged period. We do not need to review it. We just need to do it.

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