Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and schools’ allocations.

I will pursue Deputy Ardagh's question with the Minister seeing as she made a compelling case. If there is no second-level coeducational non-denominational school in Dublin 8, there should be. As she said, there is now a primary school so there is a feeder school for such a school. We should try to progress that. It is no different to Deputy O'Sullivan's point in that you need a site and some plan for it, or for some existing school to change over to a co-educational, non-denominational school.

Deputy O'Rourke asked about the school completion programme and the lack of referral pathways. I would like if that were wholly brought back within education. I pushed for that policy at the start of the previous Government. I established the embryonic form of school completion almost 20 years ago. It would be better if the entirety of that programme were in the Department of Education so all those issues can be dealt with.

Deputy Brabazon's issue was about prefabs. Some of my most enjoyable years were in prefabs, but I do not know it that was good or bad for my education. The Deputy's point is well made, however. It is frustrating for a new school building with plans for a sensory garden for prefabs to suddenly land. That is not what it is about. Prefabs are not meant to be long-term or short-term solutions anymore. If the Deputy brings the case to me, I will see if we can get some movement on it.

Deputy McGreehan raised the issue of childcare provision staff struggling. We have increased spending enormously in this area. The smaller providers are saying they have suffered a bit, particularly with the fees freeze and then the pressures on them in conforming. I will ask the Minister to engage with her on that specific issue. I take her point that some are saying they are cutting staff and cutting costs.

I could not agree more with Deputy John Connolly that teachers are in many cases advocates for well-being and wellness. He has experience of that. The programme for Government commits to the reduction of the pupil-teacher ratio. It is to be hoped we can pursue that, as we have done in recent years. It is now at historically low levels. We will continue to try to do that, because that will give great opportunities for teachers to engage with pupils specifically on the issues of wellness and the well-being of each individual pupil within the classroom.

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