Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Minister, Deputy Foley, got off her chest everything that is wrong with Sinn Féin. She has now left the building. We will keep going.

The expenditure of €9 million on phone pouches is unbelievable. That is €9 million. It is so unbelievable that I had to say it twice. It is even more unbelievable when we start doing the sums on how €9 million of taxpayers' money could and should have been better spent. My colleague Deputy Clarke and other colleagues have already set out those figures. Perhaps repeating them might help them sink in for the Government.

This money could have been used to provide more school transport places. However, for people in rural Kildare whose children have lost out in the school transport place lottery, there is no need to worry; a phone pouch will be waiting for their children at school to ease their pain. Using the money to employ 220 new special needs assistants would mean some south Kildare parents would get an SNA for their child but, no, a phone pouch is by far a better deal for the Government. What about additional funds to help schools with energy bills? Heaven forbid our schoolchildren would be warm. It seems it is better to spend that money on phone pouches instead. Is the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, listening to me?

I could say I am shocked at the Government's ludicrous decision to waste €9 million. However, it has a long and costly history of wasting public funds, from bicycle sheds and security huts to the never-ending national children's hospital saga, which the Minister of State did not bother to mention. The list is endless. The Government makes a decision, the taxpayer pays and essential services suffer as a result. CAMHS has been given only a third of what has been allocated for these pouches in the budget. We see scant concern there for children’s mental health. Will Ministers stop defending the indefensible? Will they admit that spending €9 million on phone pouches is completely inappropriate and a waste of public money and that the money could go a long way to remedying the chaos caused by the Government's undermining of children's mental health services?

Deputy Johnny Mythen: The recent announcement in budget 2025 of €9 million to be allocated for the purchase of magnetic pouches for mobile phones has caused a lot of anger and disbelief among the public. The Taoiseach's take on it, trivialising the cost to a mere €20 a head, does not wash. The fact is that €9 million is on offer. Yet, in the same budget, only €10 million was allocated to core capitation grant funding. That money has to pay for heating, lighting and cleaning for schools around the country. Each of those categories of expenditure has seen its costs soar with the rise in the cost of living. Yet, together, they are given an allocation of just €1 million above that for mobile phone pouches. Compare this with the summer school programmes for children with special needs being cut by 33% this summer. Where is the Government's priorities when we see the exorbitant cost of bike sheds and security huts, not to mention the expenditure on the children's hospital and the doubling of the purchase price of modular homes?

We call on the Government to reverse the decision to spend €9 million on a completely unnecessary and foolhardy project and to put the money where it is most needed, namely, in children's mental health and schools. School managers are crying out for extra space for special needs classes and teachers and for vice principal posts, which were allowed to critically lapse over the past few years, to be filled. Teachers are dealing with overcrowded classrooms. I am sure they would appreciate investment to tackle that issue instead of having to worry about where to store mobile phones. In Enniscorthy, we have the third biggest DEIS school outside of Dublin. I am sure it would appreciate an increase in its DEIS grant.

In the mental health sector, only €16 million was allocated for new measures, with €2.9 million for CAMHS. With respect to the Minister of State, one cannot put a person's mental health into a pouch. There are 3,681 children waiting for a first-time appointment with CAMHS. I ask the Government to support our motion and reverse the decision to spend €9 million on what can only be described as a complete waste of public money.

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