Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach sets the tone on how to spend public money. In his previous role as Minister for Health, he showed how wasteful Fine Gael is when it comes to taxpayers' money. The State is spending €2 billion, if not more, on a children's hospital that is not even ready. The completion date has been pushed back again and again, with the latest indication that it will be in 2026. There is no definite date for completion. As the then Minister for Health, the Taoiseach signed off on the construction of the project. He reappointed the board at a time of escalating costs. Somehow, however, it is somebody else's fault, not his. He has set the tone.

Now we have the Government spending €9 million on phone pouches, suggesting that we give children a break from their smartphones. I am sure we all agree that schoolchildren need a break from the voices on social media and that their mental health and focus on their education must be protected. However, the Government parties wasting €9 million is not the way to go about it. Last week, I met a group of second level pupils from a Limerick school here in Leinster House. Five of them explained to me how this scheme would not work, would be easily circumvented and how they were looking forward to the challenge. They described it as an utter waste of money. They all told me about other things that could be done in their school with additional moneys.

The €9 million for pouches could be used across the State to assist schools. Part of it could be used to address the needs of Le Chéile National School on the south side of Limerick. The school caters for 186 children in an area the Pobal deprivation index has described as extremely disadvantaged. Staff estimate that 72% of pupils have an additional need, with 38% having more than one additional need. I have raised this situation previously as a Topical Issue but there has been no action on it since then. I put in a parliamentary question regarding the school last Thursday. As I said, many of its pupils have significant needs.

Each Department it contacts seems to move the blame, wash its hands and pass it on to another Department. A parliamentary question response I got last Thursday on this issue said that these resources the school is looking for, like SETs and SNA supports, should be put in place by the schools where the schools identify additional educational needs. How is the school supposed to do that when the staff can hardly heat the school?

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