Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, for being here and I also acknowledge the communication from the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on my Topical Issue. I wish to raise the roll-out of DEIS plus, which is a significant development in education across this country. It is something of keen focus for the Labour Party. I know the Government has announced, following the general election this year, that DEIS plus would be rolled out across many schools in the country but my firm belief is that we still do not have a timeline or a budget for this.

Last week, I had the great privilege to meet three school principals. One of these, Mr. Kieran Golden, was my former boss in Mayfield Community School. I was absolutely honoured to teach in Mayfield Community School with such fantastic students and colleagues. The school is a DEIS school. The school principals outlined to us the significant challenges they face. The job of a school principal now has significantly changed over many years. Their job, particularly in a DEIS school where you are dealing with serious, different needs as opposed to just academic needs, is quite significant. I will take Mayfield Community School as one example. The deputy principal in the school is a fantastic woman. She is not a full-time deputy principal. She is on 0.75 hours of a deputy principal's role. That is extremely difficult to comprehend because the level of need in the school is quite significant.

Today, the Labour Party launched its alternative budget for 2026 and the party is fully committed to investing in the roll-out of DEIS plus across band 1 schools in this country. It is quite a significant step to take because we must ensure there are absolutely no barriers for any child in this country to accessing the appropriate school that is needed for that child, be it in primary or post-primary. We must also ensure that they have the relevant special educational needs teachers, SNAs and absolutely any other special educational teacher they need to progress in their academic life. Alongside this, we need to promote in all post-primary schools across this country the opportunity to progress in academic life or the opportunity to progress into apprenticeships. We did not have that across the island for many years. As a former secondary school teacher, I can attest that we need to see far more of it. I spent a lot of my time while I was teaching trying to encourage all students, particularly those in fifth and sixth year of the schools I taught in, to progress after they finished school into whatever career they wanted. The rolling out of DEIS plus would be a serious advantage to giving these children the opportunity to progress in life after they finished school. It is extremely important that we acknowledge the fantastic role that SNAs, special educational teachers, guidance counsellors, mainstream teachers, school principals and deputy principals play in our education system. I also want to acknowledge the fantastic students we have in this country. A lot of the time for many years we focused particularly on how good the child was academically. However, right now, we also have significant focus on what other brilliant achievements other children have, be it in academia, sport, arts or whatever it may be. I ask the Government now to produce a timeline and a budget for the rolling out of DEIS plus to benefit not just schools but most importantly students in this country.

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