Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— the Department of Education confirmed this month that 58 school building projects were paused from going to tender or commencing construction due to a lack of funding;

— the failure to publish the full list of delayed school building projects has caused enormous concern and uncertainty for school communities, with some schools being told their project is delayed and others assured that work will proceed;

— any delays to building projects that were due to start in 2023 will lead to knock-on consequences in future years, delaying the provision of permanent classrooms; and

— the additional cost of providing temporary accommodation for those delayed schools will cost millions and make the construction of permanent new schools on crowded sites more complex, costly and difficult;

recognises that the failure in Budget 2023 to increase the capital allocation for school building projects to account for increased costs and construction inflation has resulted in this outcome;

further notes that:

— there is a capacity crisis in many existing schools and extensive waiting lists for secondary schools, especially in growing urban areas;

— the School Transport Scheme is still oversubscribed in many areas due to a lack of additional capacity, and the failure to communicate properly with parents is leading to confusion and anxiety;

— delays and problems with the provision of special education classes remains an unresolved challenge;

— the annual publication of Special Needs Assistants (SNA) allocations occurs too late in the year in mid to late May, shows a lack of respect for SNAs and does not allow for appropriate school planning;

— the results of the Leaving Certificate will be delayed into September for the fourth year, and this causes a scramble for accommodation and planning difficulties for third level institutions;

— up to 25 per cent of school places may be reserved for the children or grandchildren of past pupils;

— the subsidy to private schools amounts to over €100 million and creates social barriers, and, in a Republic, children should not be segregated in schools on the grounds of religion, gender or income;

— the pilot arrangement for the transfer of eight Catholic schools to multi-denominational patrons has been badly managed, divisive and lacked transparency; progress on divestment overall has stalled, and there is no roadmap or interim targets to achieve 400 multi-denominational primary schools by 2030; and

— the introduction of free schoolbooks at primary level is welcome but schools are still underfunded, and too many education costs are still borne by parents; and

calls for:

— the Minister for Education to publish the list of delayed school building projects, and for the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to commit to providing the additional capital expenditure needed for these to commence;

— the Government to commit that the 58 delayed schools will commence construction or tendering this year, and for the publication of what school building projects will commence in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and a guarantee that these projects will proceed;

— additional resources to be committed towards meeting the capacity constraints facing primary and secondary schools across the country;

— a commitment that no child will be left without a place through the School Transport Scheme from September 2023;

— a status report to be published by the end of April on the provision of special education classes and schools for the next school year, implementation of a national autism strategy, and the earlier publication of SNA allocations for schools;

— the removal of the provision in law allowing 25 per cent of school places to be reserved for the children or grandchildren of past pupils, and the phasing out of State funding for private schools and single sex schools;

— radical reform of the Leaving Certificate, and a return to the publication of results in August;

— a reduction in class sizes of schools in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme to a pupil teacher ratio of 15:1, abolition of voluntary contributions and a binding pledge to make education truly free; and

— a commitment that the Citizens' Assembly on the Future of Education will be commenced this year, a redesign of the divestment process, and the publication of a roadmap to achieve the Government target of 400 multi-denominational schools by 2030.

I am sharing time with a number of my colleagues. It is said that education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. There are very few issues more important to the Labour Party than education. As we rise today and speak on a motion on education, we think of our recently departed colleague, Niamh Bhreathnach, who was a trailblazer in the field of education.

It would be unfair of the Labour Party to say that the Minister, Deputy Foley, has not had her successes because she has. It is important for us in opposition to recognise when a Minister has achievements. We will recognise that and we want to work with her in her many endeavours, however, today we must unfortunately point to a number of failures. They are failures partly because of planning and a lack of vision that are seeing school communities, individual students and parents suffer. The top of our list is the issue of school buildings. Some 58 school communities got devastating letters telling them that the school building projects, in which they were so invested, are not going to happen. We are getting confusing messages between the Taoiseach saying last week that they will recommence this year and the Minister saying she cannot make that commitment. It appears the Taoiseach has resiled from the position he had last week. There was no increase in the capital budget of last year's budget. Surely the escalating costs that have resulted in the stalling of the 58 school projects should have foreseen. We still do not have the list of 58 schools.

On school places, my colleague, Senator Mark Wall, in County Kildare, has said that outside of housing, the ability to get a school place for their child is top of the list of concerns parents have. The Government still will not help the Labour Party to pass our Bill that would remove the elitist provision in the Education (Admission to Schools) Act that allows for 25% of places to be kept for children or grandchildren of past pupils. This elitist measure was brought in because of the lobbying power of the private school sector.

Let us talk about the school transport initiative, again, a welcome measure and something we supported, but the Minister must accept that it was shambolic when rolled out and we cannot see those scenes again. Will she ensure that we will not see those scenes again, of children left on the side of road, most acutely evident in the constituency of my colleague, Deputy Sherlock?

As for special education classes, we are still hearing from parents who cannot be assured there will be a place in September for their children, the most acutely vulnerable children, especially those with autism. We as a party congratulate Irish international player, James McClean, on his courageous statement this week of his own diagnosis, the same diagnosis as that of his daughter, Willow-Ivy.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Hear, hear.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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This will help to break through many of the stigmas attached to the issue of autism.

We want a status report at the end of this month on the provision of special education classes for children with additional needs, and we want movement on the national autism strategy. We have been calling for a national autism strategy for years. We stand with parents who are absolutely exhausted dealing with a challenging diagnosis in their families, who expected to be able to turn to the State for help, support and compassion, but who then realised they had to go to war with the State for any sort of provision, for basic interventions, even for an assessment. We want to stand with the special needs assistants who work with these children every single day but who have had to break through a legacy of disrespect over the past number of years.

It is only because they joined the Fórsa trade union in large numbers that they have achieved some sort of breakthrough. The Department is telling me, through replies to parliamentary questions, that the publication of allocations for this year will be done on the basis of a similar timeframe to last year, which was in the last days of May. Again, this shows no respect for special needs assistants who are holding schools and often families together. We stand absolutely with our special needs assistants.

Again, I cannot place all of the blame with the Minister with regard to the leaving certificate because there are forces which are quite conservative and which do not want to see change. The Minister wants to see change, and she did offer some solutions as to how we can take the burden away from students at the end of sixth year. We have seen the activism and energy of leaving certificate students through the pandemic years. The Minister did listen to them, did respond to them and did platform them, and that is to her credit, but we have to break through and have radical change to the leaving certificate, which is essentially the same exam as when I did it almost 30 years ago.

On DEIS and disadvantage, I know the Minister will say there is historic investment in DEIS and that €37 million has been put into the DEIS programme. However, it is not going to benefit acutely disadvantaged students by giving a quarter of the schools in Ireland DEIS status. We need a re-evaluation of the most acutely disadvantaged schools, we need an extra designation for those who are acutely disadvantaged, as I have described, and we need to return to the vision of a 15:1 ratio that Niamh Breathnach had in the context of her Breaking the Cycle scheme. We have to return to the vision of free education that we speak about so often in these Houses. Again, the Minister has had success in this regard because there are going to be free schoolbooks in primary schools from September. We congratulate her on that. However, we have to move further and ban voluntary contributions. We need to have free school books at second level. We need to make sure that no parent in this Republic is worried about having an interface with the school because they are going to be asked for money. This is what happens. They are less likely to go to the school gates, less likely to go to a parent-teacher meeting and less likely to be involved with a parents' association, which is effectively a fundraising body, because they will be asked for money. We should have more ambition in that regard.

We need to move on the Minister's ambition to have 400 multidenominational schools by 2030. The process is failing because the church holds all the cards. I was stunned by the Taoiseach’s remark last week to the effect that he does not believe in forced secularisation of the Irish education system. He clearly believes in forced separation, because the education system here is obsessed with separating children; we are obsessed with separating them on the basis of religion, on the basis of gender and on the basis of income.

On income, let us stop subsidising private schools. If a school wants to be elitist or exclusionary, that is fine. We should let it be. However, let us stop backing such schools with State money.

On gender, outside of the Arab world, Ireland has more gender-segregated schools than anywhere else. We need to challenge that. Within ten years, we can have a situation where we phase out gender segregation in primary schools. We can do it in secondary schools within 15 years.

We have a vision for education that is inclusive and that will lift the experience of every child. We in the Labour Party know that poverty is a thief. Poverty steals childhoods, imagination and ambition. Poverty humiliates. If you are in a family that does not have access to funds in order to pay for a schoolbook, to pay for a uniform or to pay the voluntary contribution, it is the humiliation that grinds you down, and education is the only thing that will ever set you free. If people think the investment in what we are talking about here is expensive, what is more expensive is a life without education. That is much more expensive than any of the measures we are proposing. We are asking for more vision on school building, on school places, on school transport, on special education, on autism, on SNAs, on the leaving certificate, on disadvantage, on multidenominational schools and on producing an education system which is worthy of a country that pretends to call itself a republic.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I acknowledge that the Minister has made some very positive changes when it comes to schoolbooks in particular. As she knows, my wife is a schoolteacher. My wife hails from the Minister's county but she teaches in Tipperary. In fairness, the Minister has visited my wife's school and brought good news with her. I have to acknowledge that.

I also very much welcome the changes in regard to hot meals. I feel the Minister is visionary in looking at changes to the leaving certificate, and maybe other forces should be coming more with the Minister, or that would be our opinion in the Labour Party.

There are a number of issues I would like to raise with the Minister. The first is the issue of private schools. Ideologically, I just cannot understand how, as a State, we can continue to give €121 million to private schools. It is nobody's business. If people want to send their children to private schools, that is their business. They should pay for doing so, however. The State is giving these schools €121 million - up from €89 million in 2020. What could that €121 million do in respect of the range of issues that my colleague has just spoken about? This is elitism; it is totally wrong and it has to be stopped. It is one of the first things that I argued when I first came into this Chamber in 2011.

I would also like the Minister to supply to the House a breakdown of the private schools across the country. By the way, Tipperary has quite a number of them and I say that as somebody who represents those areas. It would be interesting to get a breakdown of the volume of Ukrainian and refugee children who are attending these schools as opposed to public schools.

On the schools building programme, I want to raise the issue of Newport College on behalf of my colleague, Councillor Fiona Bonfield, and the principal and the staff there. There is a situation where the school has been approved for a large extension and, in the interim, it has been approved for five prefabs. The construction process has already begun so money has been wasted, and now they have been told they are not actually getting those prefabs. This is a town that is growing exponentially because of the spillover from regeneration in Limerick. The school population is 270. It will be 345 next year and 375 the following year. The only solution that was proposed when the principal and the education and training board in Tipperary argued in this regard was that they should take over the small canteen in the school. That is incredible.

What is going on with these 58 schools? Are there 58? What is the secrecy about naming them? This is probably a matter that the Committee of Public Accounts is going to deal with at some stage. What is the issue with naming the schools involved? Is the list final? Is there are debate about whether some schools are going forwards or backwards? We understand and acknowledge that there are changes in the context of inflation, but these are critical. Surely the Government can find funding for the schools. Good money has been thrown after bad, and Newport College and the children in the surrounding area are losing out significantly because of it.

On school transport, we are now coming to what I would call the annual madness in respect of the fact that we do not have enough places and it is oversubscribed, which is a good thing. I know of a ridiculous situation where the son of one of my neighbours - he is nearly a next-door neighbour - could not get a place on the bus that brings him to secondary school. Even though his uncle drives the bus and lives in the next house and even though the bus is parked on his father's land overnight, he could not get on it because it was oversubscribed. Eventually, we got there, but we all know of hundreds of cases like this across the country, with people contacting us all year long. This is something that is very easy to solve. The co-ordination between the Departments of Education and Transport could be looked at. I suggested previously that this matter should really be under the Department of Transport rather than the Department of Education.

In the context of circular 0006/2023, I understand that the staffing appeals board is independent as regards staffing allocations. For the life of me, however, I cannot understand some of the decisions that are made. I do not understand, for example, how, in light of the number of children in the area and the number of special needs children in the autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units, Puckaun school cannot be independently assigned the teachers it requires.

With regard to ASD and special educational needs organiser, SENO, assessments, unfortunately, many kids have these assessments done privately but schools are sometimes not prepared for the technology needed to meet those kids' requirements. There are not enough ASD units. I encourage the Minister to use the legislation brought in by Deputy McHugh to designate areas to have ASD units.

I will bring up two cases. One relates to a young boy in Coole National School in Westmeath. His mother, whom I spoke to today, cannot afford to get the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, assessment the Christian Brothers secondary school in Mullingar is insisting upon. What is the solution? What can I tell this lady about her son, who obviously needs this NEPS assessment? I will also mention a young child from my own village of Portroe who has extra needs and cannot be supported through the local ASD unit any more. There are only two real options for him to go to: the special school in Lisnagry in Limerick or St. Anne's Special School in Roscrea. Both schools always tend to be full. How can we ensure this child's education will progress as it deserves to, given the small allocation for children with needs like his in these units?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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One of the things the Minister needs to do this afternoon is to commit to ensuring the school transport system does not descend into the same shambles this year that she presided over last year. I do not want to have to experience the number of calls, emails and meetings with frantic parents we had to experience last year. I hope the Minister can commit to ensuring that the system functions next year in the way that it should in advance of the kinds of reforms Deputy Kelly proposed. However, I will limit my contribution today and focus on the school building programme. I will illustrate the case by referencing two particular schools and their individual stories because they illustrate the journey some schools have been on over recent years and a real dysfunction at the heart of how the Department of Education's building unit does its business.

Let us take the case of Drogheda Educate Together Secondary School, for example. According to figures the Minister provided to me a few weeks ago, more than €11 million has been spent on temporary accommodation for this school while it waits, year after year, for a badly needed permanent home. It will be three or four more years before a spade strikes the ground on that project and that is only if it is not shelved at the last minute as 58 other school projects were this month. That school opened in 2019 and, four years later, it is no closer to having the permanent home it was promised. An application for planning permission is due to be submitted shortly. Meanwhile, an ever-increasing number of modular units are being funded to cater for the growing school population at the cost of the eye-watering figure of €11 million I have mentioned. I have said from the outset that it would have made financial sense for the Department to have run the lengthy planning process for the permanent school alongside the provision of the temporary accommodation so that the two projects could progress side-by-side. That did not happen, however. It seems the Department of Education is immune to considering common sense proposals.

I raised two weeks ago the experience of Ardee Educate Together National School. It caters for more than 200 pupils in what I would describe as a mishmash of prefabs, a 200-year-old building that is not fit for purpose and - would you believe it - a converted warehouse. That school is operating on two sides of a very busy road. I remind the Minister that this is a primary school. Construction workers should be on site in Ardee right now. Construction was due to start the week after St. Patrick's Day. The construction company was ready to go but, with days to go, the Department emailed the school to say that the project had been shelved. Remarkably, when this was followed up on, officials in the Department advised the school principal to contact the local Deputy. There is no transparency and no accountability in the Minister's Department. That is an utter disgrace and no way to run a Department.

We have been told that many schools have been put on hold for an undefined period of time and that works will begin at an indefinite date in the future. I will remind the Minister of what we managed to do at a time when this country had no money whatsoever. It was not just his sensibilities as an architect, but as a politician as well, that led the then Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn, to ensure in 2011 that we started to build schools again rather than wasting money by providing the limited resources we had to the prefab companies, which were the only operations winning from that kind of policy. Here we are at a time of plenty, when an Exchequer surplus of €5.3 billion was recorded last year, and we cannot build schools that were promised many years ago. In 2011, the then Minister, Ruairi Quinn, signed off on a new school for the Ardee Educate Together National School. We succeeded in building schools between 2011 and 2016 but now, at a time of plenty, the Minister cannot manage to turn the sod on schools that were promised many years ago. We need a firm commitment from the Minister as to the future of this local school that she will build the permanent home its students and staff deserve. Indeed, this motion calls on the Government to give that same commitment for all of the 58 shelved projects around the country.

As the Labour Party spokesperson on public expenditure and reform, I have been following this closely and we know that the Department gives a burden sharing commitment in respect of important public projects, which is quite extraordinary. This means the Department will cover some inflation-related costs for various priority national development plan projects this year. Where stand the 58 schools in that regard?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset, I would like to be associated with Deputy Ó Ríordáin's words on the former Minister, Niamh Bhreathnach. I remember her with great fondness and have had the opportunity to say so in this House. She was truly a visionary woman who made an extraordinary contribution to the world of education. We are certainly the lesser for her passing. I acknowledge that in the context of what the Labour Party is doing here today.

I am very appreciative of the opportunity to acknowledge very sincerely all that occurs and all that happens in our schools every single day along with all the staff do to best support children and young people in the education sector. It is important to note that, since its formation two and a half years ago, this Government has made truly record levels of investment available to our education system. Funding of almost €10 billion supports a myriad of actions and initiatives to ensure that every child and young person is supported to reach his or her full potential. This investment has occurred across every area of the Department’s activity, from school buildings to special education and curricular reform. I will use my time to update the House on just some of these initiatives.

Reference has been made to a school being so much more than a building, something of which I am very conscious. However, at the same time, I also recognise the need for, and benefit of, investment in our physical infrastructure. Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing €4.4 billion over the period 2021 to 2025 to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities across the country for the almost 1 million students and more than 100,000 staff who learn and work in our schools every day. More than 180 school building projects were delivered during 2022. This included the accelerated delivery of modular accommodation to facilitate additional capacity in special classes and special schools to cater for more than 900 children in response to the increasing prevalence of special education needs. This ambitious programme was delivered notwithstanding the significant challenges arising from building cost inflation. Approximately 300 school building projects continued in construction at the start of 2023, the majority of which will be completed in 2023 or early 2024. This includes 40 new school buildings and more than 260 projects in existing schools. This is a very strong level of delivery of school building projects and reflects the Government’s priority for investment in education. Other key achievements under the school building programme in 2022 include: successfully supporting and facilitating the enrolment of 15,000 children from Ukraine in our primary and post-primary schools since March 2022; progressing 16 deep energy retrofit pathfinder projects in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland; enhancing the State’s strategic planning for school place delivery through geographic information systems; and establishing 16 regional education and language teams, REALTs, to facilitate enrolment of children from Ukraine.

However, these are challenging times across all areas of construction with high levels of construction inflation. In addition to the normal pressures on the school building budget, there are also additional pressures in the context of the requirement to accelerate delivery of accommodation for children with special education needs and also in respect of capacity for the continued inflow of Ukrainian and other international protection students, particularly at post-primary level where accommodation pressures are more acute.

I am very appreciative of the strong support provided by Government for our education budget. The Department's published national development plan allocation for 2023 is €860 million. Some 73% of this allocation is needed to cover expenditure on contractual commitments on the approximately 300 existing projects at construction carried forward from 2022 that I have mentioned. The Department's planning and building unit is currently assessing its work programme and priorities for 2023 in the context of its available funding. We are currently engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in respect of these funding arrangements. I am appreciative of the support which has been offered by the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in this regard. The Department has sought to reassure relevant school communities that school building projects that are currently on hold due to capital funding pressures will be progressed and delivered.

At this point it is simply a question of the timing of that. The Department is well aware of the urgency of getting these projects delivered as quickly as possible.

Regarding the Deputy's request to publish a list of delayed projects, it is best and appropriate for communications to be done at individual school level and that is the approach that has been taken. The Department has prioritised engagement with boards of management and principals before publishing wider information and will be providing a further update to individual schools when engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform concludes. In tandem with this, the Department’s planning and building unit will also be updating patron bodies and school management bodies at that stage.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I apologise for interrupting an Aire. Are copies of her speech available?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I will text for it. I apologise. That is my mistake. I will ensure it is included.

The forthcoming NDP review to be undertaken later in 2023 will be key to dealing with the type of issues referenced in the motion regarding project roll-out in future years and addressing any capacity constraints at primary and post-primary level.

I will turn now to other areas raised in the Private Members' motion. The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for me as Minister for Education, for Deputy Madigan as Minister of State and for wider Government. This year’s budget for special education stands at more than €2 billion, the largest ever budget to be devoted to special education. This budget supports students across mainstream and more than 2,500 special classes and 128 special schools.

Where possible, all students are supported in mainstream education, with additional supports such as support from SNAs and special education teachers as appropriate. At the same time, we recognise the specific role for specialist provision such as special classes and schools. For this reason, we have pursued dedicated measures to support new special classes and schools. These initiatives are bearing fruit with more than 600 new special classes sanctioned at primary level, almost 300 new special classes sanctioned at post-primary level and five new special schools established over the last three years. I reassure the House that both my Department and the NCSE remain committed to working to ensure that every child who requires a special class or special school place for the coming school year can access one.

There are now approximately 20,000 special needs assistants making a valuable contribution to our school communities, through the provision of adult support to enable students with additional care needs to attend school. On average more than 1,000 additional SNAs have been allocated to schools over the last three years. This is in addition to the more than 19,000 special education teachers working across the education system. The Department is continuing to work on a number of strategies, in consultation with the education partners, particularly Fórsa, to support the work of SNAs in our schools. The SNA allocations for the 2023-2024 school year are being developed by my Department and it is intended this will be advised to schools as soon as possible in April, which is earlier than last year.

Regarding leaving certificate reform, the Government is committed to ensuring that the leaving certificate meets the needs of Irish students and broader Irish society. As the House will be aware, together with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, we have launched a significant reform of the senior cycle, covering the leaving certificate established, the leaving certificate applied, the leaving certificate vocational programme and the transition year programme. At its core, this reform seeks to empower students, enrich the student experience and embed well-being into the curriculum. We have already progressed key measures under this plan, such as removing barriers between the three different leaving certificate programmes, appointing a programme delivery board and partners forum and commencing subject development work for new curriculums.

The Government’s objective is to have at least 400 multidenominational schools in the primary system by 2030 to improve parental choice. In March 2022, pilot arrangements were put in place in a number of areas to identify potential schools and to engage with school authorities, school staff and the school communities with a view to agreeing on a transfer of patronage and change of ethos where there was sufficient demand for this. As the House can appreciate, this pilot has been put in place in order to facilitate reconfiguration within schools and to develop a better understanding of the issues that arise for schools that undertake this process. We are fully committed to learning from this process.

It is worth noting that 52 of the 53 new primary schools established to cater for demographic demand since 2011 are multidenominational and 44 of the 50 new post-primary schools are also multidenominational.

The establishment of a citizens’ assembly on the future of education will be the subject of a Government decision and resolutions of the Dáil and Seanad at the appropriate time. The question of when the assembly might commence depends in large part on how soon the current assembly concludes its work and submits its reports. My officials are looking at how best to appropriately input to the pre-assembly process, including through liaison with the Department of the Taoiseach and key stakeholders across school communities.

The school transport scheme is a very significant scheme and is critically important to many ordinary families around the country. In the current school year, more than 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. Bus Éireann is communicating with parents and schools directly regarding the scheme for the 2023-2024 school year, in addition to extensive media and social media campaigns, which I am sure the Deputies opposite will have heard. The programme for Government commits to reviewing the school transport scheme and a major review is currently under way. It is anticipated that the final phases of the review will be completed shortly.

Regarding admissions, I have previously signalled my intention to review the provision that allows schools, if they so desire, to take into account a student’s connection to a school by virtue of a parent or grandparent having previously attended the school when deciding on an application for admission to that school. An important feature of the admission process is that all schools that are not oversubscribed must accept all applications. This is crucial in ensuring a fair, equitable and transparent process.

As part of budget 2023, the Department is allocating more than €50 million to provide free books to primary school children and young people within the free education scheme.

Regarding class sizes, I remind the House that in each of the past three years we have had a one-point reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level bringing it to an historical low of 23:1. This is just a flavour of the proactive progress the Department has made with more to be done.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Bogaimid ar aghaidh anois le Sinn Féin, agus an Teachta Rose Conway-Walsh, cúig nóiméad.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome this motion from the Labour Party.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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A Chathaoirligh, I think it is back to the Labour Party and then Sinn Féin.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Gabh mo leithscéal. My screen has gone ahead of me here.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I know the feeling.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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Your speech was great though, Rose.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I call an Teachta Howlin, sharing deich nóiméad with an Teachta Sherlock.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am delighted to have five minutes to talk on this really important subject. I commend my colleague Deputy Ó Ríordáin on such a comprehensive analysis which underscores not only his crafting of the motion but also his passionate presentation of it and his real interest in and his passion for education. He recognises, as we in the Labour Party do, how vital education is as a mechanism for true equality in this country, for achieving the breaking out of unequal society that I am afraid has endured for so long. We have very far to go based on the points Deputy Ó Ríordáin made about how segregated our education system still is on the basis of religion, gender and economic standing. We really need to do better. Segregated education is at the core of the divisions that have happened other societies, particularly multi-ethnic societies in Europe. We need to learn from that and I appeal to the Minister to accelerate all that she has done in that regard.

I had the privilege to serve in Cabinet with the late Niamh Bhreathnach. She also had a passion for programmes like Breaking the Cycle. As an educator, she saw how important education is as a tool to provide real opportunities for people to advance and create a society worthy of the Republic that was declared just over century ago.

I want to deal with some specific issues in my constituency from the long agenda that is there. There is an acute shortage of secondary school places in Wexford town. The town has five secondary schools, four of which are Catholic schools. They are St. Peter's College and Coláiste Eamonn Rís, catering for boys; Loretto Convent and Presentation Convent, catering for girls; and Selskar College, which is the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board, WWETB, school, a much smaller one because of the confinement of its campus. We really need a fifth school. We rebuilt two of those, Loretto Convent and Coláiste Eamonn Rís, at a time when we had no money but we built hundreds of schools because we prioritised that at a time when money was really scarce. As money is not scarce now, I ask the Minister to provide the schools. We absolutely need the coming together of the WWETB in Selskar College with Educate Together to provide another 1,000-pupil school, a Community College for Wexford.

This would not only meet the needs of people who are displaced and have to travel to Enniscorthy, New Ross and further afield for places, but also provide people with a choice other than denominational schools, which are by far the only choice available to students currently. I ask the Minister to consider this programme. A site is being worked upon to get it done.

My colleague, Senator Wall, has the same types of pressure on him, being from a developing county with new people. People cannot take up positions in our counties because they cannot get school places for their children. Senator Wall tells me that there are significant problems with a lack of capacity in Kildare town, Newbridge, Maynooth and Celbridge, with many children being dislodged and unable to get places. New temporary accommodation for secondary schools at Magee barracks in Kildare town has still not been decided upon, despite how doing so would give parents certainty. I understand the Minister promised in early February that there would be a decision, yet there is still no word.

There are considerable issues with school places in a number of areas in Kildare. Senator Wall spoke to two families who, in the past week, had contacted more than ten schools, but there were no places for their loved ones. This is unacceptable. The Senator's colleague, Councillor Angela Feeney, told me that three schools were meant to move into a new school building in Celbridge – St. Patrick's Primary School, St. Raphael's Special School and Celbridge Community School. They are all in prefabs and still have no joy as regards the new building. The money is there. I have spoken to the Minister's colleagues on this point. She should use the surplus she has for capital works. This would be one-off spending – once the schools are built, they will be there – to provide proper infrastructure for our students.

Regarding halted school buildings, I wish to discuss Ballyellis National School in Gorey in my constituency. I asked the Minister about this matter via parliamentary question, to which I received the reply today. The situation is exactly as the Minister has said. This school was ready to go, with builders on standby. It is needed urgently, but people were told to stop. Now, the Minister is telling me the project is being re-evaluated and that people will be told sine die. That is not acceptable. Just give the go-ahead to provide these people with the school they need.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I support our motion. I wish to raise a matter that relates to Dublin Central. The Chair might ask why a Corkman is doing so, but I have been asked by Senator Sherlock to raise the issue of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square. When will the sod turning for the school take place? As I understand the situation, it was to take place around Easter. The school has been in temporary accommodation for approximately 21 years, paying in or around €328,000 per year to rent a building. If the Minister or one of her colleagues updated the House on this school, the people of that community would be grateful.

We acknowledge that more students availed of the Minister's announcement last year of more places on school transport. However, that policy created many exceptions. There were people on concessionary tickets who found themselves displaced as a result of the creation of additional spaces. Until such time as there is a proper review that examines the 3.2 km and 4.8 km restrictions, school transport will not be availed of by as many students as could. There is unmet potential. The 3.2 km and 4.8 km rules are anachronistic in terms of parental and student choice about the schools they wish to attend. Will the Minister re-examine these criteria? Until such time as they are abolished or amended, exceptions will be created whereby, if someone does not meet the criteria, he or she will be without a school bus place. We are already receiving emails from people in advance of next September regarding this issue.

I take at face value the Minister's announcement of the creation of additional special school places or places for children with additional needs, but there are still pockets throughout the country where no places are available. I refer specifically to my patch in north and east Cork. In recent weeks, there has been an uptick in parents contacting me. Where a child needs access to a special class, parents are being told by principals that schools do not have the places. This is happening in places like Mitchelstown. In one case, a parent has tried Anglesboro, Ballygiblin and Mitchelstown, only to be told by three principals that there are no places. I am told that, while there is a willingness on the part of the school in Ballygiblin to take on additional capacity, sanction has not been given. If the Minister, through her officials, did a root-and-branch review that took into account the geography of the places I am talking about where there are children who do not necessarily fit enrolment policies in larger towns like Mitchelstown, Fermoy and Mallow, and if places could be created for them, it would be welcome.

Deputies have always had a relationship with SENOs and there was some level of local discretion. Notwithstanding the good work they do, there are not enough of them. For some reason, the setting up of the NCSE has created a new bureaucracy or technocracy. One principal told me that she was up until 3 a.m. writing an appeal. The answer she received was that her school, which had a significant need, would be entitled to only a fraction of a whole-time equivalent. This bureaucratic and technocratic system needs to be reviewed, if possible. We need more discretion and a greater degree of common sense needs to prevail as regards the provision of places for people who are under severe pressure.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Labour Party for tabling this timely motion, which touches on a number of important issues, one of which is the lack of capacity in school transport. Across the State, students and families that had relied on school transport for years were suddenly displaced last year. The Government had no plan to increase capacity meaningfully and left children on the side of the road. We are awaiting the review, which the Minister keeps saying is due shortly, but can there be at least flexibility this year to ensure every child has a seat on a bus? I am asking for flexibility because, ahead of the closing date for applications for school transport, there are people who will not know which school their children will be attending and where they will be living come next September. There has to be flexibility, and the Minister must guarantee it today.

The provision of special education is an ongoing crisis for families and students, with families pleading for places for their children and a complete disregard for the rights of children with different learning needs. This happens repeatedly. If these issues did not need to be fixed, we would not be debating this motion.

The Government is conducting a review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, or the EPSEN Act, but what people want to know is where the money is going. We say that every child will have a place, but the fact is that every child is not equal and does not have a place. Almost 20 years later, the Act has not been even fully implemented.

The annual publication of the special needs assistance allocation occurs far too late in the year in mid-to-late May. This shows a lack of respect for SNAs and does not allow the appropriate time for school planning. For a fourth year, the results of the leaving certificate will be delayed into September, which will cause a scramble for accommodation and planning difficulties for third level institutions.

It also makes it difficult for students from the North to apply for a college place in the South. They get the UCAS offer much earlier and have to decide whether to accept it before they even get an offer from the colleges in the South. I have repeatedly flagged this to the Minister but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

The motion correctly states that the introduction of free school books at primary level is welcome. However, schools are still under-funded and too many education costs fall on parents. The main reason for this motion is the fact that 58 schools have seen capital projects grind to a halt without any real explanation. The delays are likely to affect tens of thousands of students who in many cases have been in temporary accommodation and prefabs for years. This is yet another example of the Government's complete inability to deliver capital projects.

One of the schools impacted by this incompetence is Davitt College in Castlebar. It is the largest school in Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB area. I went to visit this school recently. There is an absolute frustration, anger and disappointment among the management and staff there. Those feelings extend to parents and to the wider community of the Castlebar area. Two years ago, a commitment was made that if the school increased its number of students by 170, the necessary construction would be delivered. The corridors of the school are overcrowded. The canteen is not fit-for-purpose and there are no facilities for vulnerable students. The school has sanction for two special classes but no physical rooms available. Last August, a small special educational needs base was converted to accommodate the autism spectrum disorder, ASD, class but it is not fit-for-purpose either. This September, Davitt College gave a commitment to open two ASD classes. Enrolment has been already accepted for next year. The school was informed on 30 January that the building had stopped. This was mere weeks after the first workers and machines arrived on site. The management spoke of the relief among staff that construction was starting. The school is relying on portacabins, essentially portable prefabs. They are even narrower than other prefabs. Due to these delays, staff and students are facing another year of overcrowding and substandard facilities. Davitt College in Castlebar is the biggest school in the area. I ask the Minister to look at what was promised for this school. It must be sorted out.

I commend the teachers, staff and everyone involved in Davitt College because they are going above and beyond the call of duty. They are doing Trojan work. They are making every inch of space in that school count to create an environment for students that is conducive to them fulfilling their educational potential but they must not be left behind. Will the Minister ensure this project is delivered in its entirety for County Mayo and Castlebar?

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I will give a number of examples from Donegal in which the decision to refer these projects to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform has caused real anger and genuine concern. The Minister for Education will be aware that a range of schools across Donegal have waited for many years for badly needed improvements and new school projects. I will start with Moville Community College. It is a tremendous school. Students have a tremendous experience there. It has tremendous teachers and a tremendous community that is being failed by totally inadequate school buildings on a totally inadequate school campus. Young people are eating their food in the hallway at lunchtime. There are inadequate classrooms and physical education, PE, facilities. They are totally inadequate when we consider the sheer quality of the teachers and the whole community. They have been waiting for many years. There is devastatingly slow progress. Finally, they were ready to go to tender. Although the Minister has not published the list of schools, I have responses to parliamentary questions relating to Moville Community College that clearly state it has been referred to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and is being considered. However, the Minister has not published a list. There is serious concern about Moville Community College.

The planning permission for Scoil Íosagáin in Buncrana expired because the Government took far too many years to deal with this issue. It has planning permission again and is ready to go. It has had inadequate school buildings for many years and it is again delayed. There are also concerns around the three-school campus in Buncrana, which includes Crana College and the Gaelscoileanna in Buncrana. They have been waiting for many years. There was messing around over a site. It is a question of bureaucracy, total failure, a lost decade and we do not want this project to be caught up again. Parents are asking what is going on with Gaelscoil na gCeithre Máistrí. It has waited for many years. The school thought it was ready to go and there would not be any more delays, but it is facing more delays. Those are a few examples from Donegal. The Minister needs to deal with these issues urgently.

Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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I acknowledge the Labour Party for tabling this motion. It is important as 58 schools have been impacted by the freezing of the process to develop and build schools. Four of the schools are in my constituency. Harold's Cross Educate Together National School, ETNS, Harold's Cross Educate Together Secondary School, ETSS, and Shellybanks ETNS and Sandymount Park ETSS, which are both in Sandymount. I met the staff of the Harold's Cross schools last week. The principals Ruth and in the secondary school, Pádraig Conaty, do fantastic work. I spoke with the third year students who outlined the challenges they face because there is no indoor lunch area and no recreational area. They are surrounded by a building site. It is very loud and there is a lot of dust and dirt. It is certainly not conducive to a developing school. The students must eat at their desks when the weather is bad, and the Irish weather during winter is not great. They spend a lot of their break times in their classrooms. We all know how important PE is to students and yet there is no indoor exercise area at all.

The students knew being on site as the school was developed would not be ideal but they liked the ethos of the school and they were very fond of the teachers and were appreciative of the work the teachers and principal did, so they signed up to the Harold's Cross schools. Parents and students assumed the building would continue but, out of the blue, everything was frozen. They are upset about the uncertainty and that the current conditions in which they are being educated will continue.

It should be also pointed out that delays in school building and school development causes delays for the neurodiverse in the community who are already treated like second-class citizens. They are bussed and taxied out of their communities to school. These delays are adding to the stress caused to children and parents, as highlighted to me by Involve Autism and Neurodiversity – Irishtown, Ringsend and Pearse Street, NIRP. This freezing of the development of schools is a huge worry. The Department must address this as a matter of urgency and unfreeze the funds.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and thank the Labour Party for tabling it. The recent news that the Department of Education has decided to put on hold the construction of 58 school buildings due to financial pressures has come as a huge blow to school communities.

I will speak about one school in my constituency, Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. For more than ten years, there has been talk of a new building for Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in Donaghmede. I know the school well and I have three children who currently attend it. From many years all we, as parents, heard was that we would get a new school. I want to give the Minister a sense of the timeline of that for me as a parent. My eldest daughter was in fourth class when I first heard that we would get a new building. She is now in fifth year and the school still does not have a new building.

The Minister for Education is aware of the conditions in the school. In September 2021, the media covered the story of prefabs that were not fit-for-purpose. I know works have been carried out on these prefabs but they should have been replaced by a new school building. The construction of Gaelcholáiste Reachrann needs to go ahead. It is a fantastic school, which will cater for 600 students in an area where it is badly needed.

Last Thursday in the Dáil, Deputy Ó Ríordáin invited the Minister to visit Gaelcholáiste Reachrann to see the conditions in the school with her own eyes. I hope she takes him up on that offer.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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Mo bhuíochas le Páirtí an Lucht Oibre as ucht an rún seo a rith. Beimid ag tacú leis anocht. I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate, particularly as parents in north County Kildare are tearing their hair out regarding the lack of school places for their children. We have been trying to compile a list of the 58 schools affected by the decision in the Department of Education to stop funding for new builds and school extensions, but the Department refuses to provide the relevant information. How paternalistic is it that the Department will not tell elected representatives of the people what is going on? It is almost a case of it being the Department’s schools and money rather than the people's schools and their money. The paternalistic arrogance of the Government was on full display this morning when a Fianna Fail Deputy told people under threat of eviction that the terror they were feeling about losing their homes equated to a spoilt brat looking for extra sweets and needing their Government to tell them no. The Government's job is to provide public services that meet the needs of people where they are; it is not the job of the Government to provide what it thinks they need.

Parents in north County Kildare are working harder than ever and living further away from the type of family support that earlier generations were able to rely on. Parents need the peace of mind of knowing that their children can get a school place. They need notice because their lives take a lot of planning. I have one example of a couple in Kilcock who lost the after-school place for their young child because they are not able to get a school place confirmed for the child. This couple are both nurses. They worked right through Covid-19, with their children going to childcare while the rest of us stayed at home. This is how the Government is rewarding them.

I have questions for the Minister about a school which has been promised to people buying homes in Millerstown in Kilcock but about which the Department does not seem to know anything. There are 50 children in Kilcock without school places, which tells me that a new school is needed, particularly as there are two junior infant classes starting this year. There is no school and no principal I can ring to talk to because one has not been appointed. When I table parliamentary questions, I receive the answer that current schools in Kilcock are oversubscribed. This represents under-provision on the part of Government.

The Minister spoke about school buses. I am aware of approximately 30 parents in Rathcoffey and Straffan who are still waiting for places for their children on the bus scoile. The Minister's party has had 100 years in office; that is 100 years too long.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Deputies who tabled the motion for bringing it forward and giving us the opportunity to discuss this matter, which comes up every year. It is bewildering that the Government fails utterly to plan. For example, the area in which I live has the fastest-growing population in the State. As sure as night follows day, when children are born they will need an education. Every year, however, the Minister for Education expresses her surprise when I raise an issue relating to my constituency. There is an issue every year because we are short of school places. The Minister stated that her Department had prioritised engagement with boards of management and principals before publishing information. That is not good enough. At this point, I know that at least one school in my area will be impacted. Nobody has had the courtesy to actually publish a list, however. It is frustrating that the Department knows the names on that list and which schools are impacted, as do the schools themselves. It is paternalistic and disrespectful not to come out and tell people. It is an appalling way to treat people.

The Minister also referred to procurement. I mention one of the companies the State contracts with, namely, Murphy International. Many people will be familiar with the bottle-green vans. I raise this point because at the end of last year, four Unite trade union members working for Murphy International in County Limerick were sacked, including a shop steward. They are known as the Murphy Four. They were members of staff who had combined service of 50 years. When the State spends money, workers' rights should be protected. When that does not happen, the relevant Minister should step in and ensure it is done. The workers to whom I refer are being thrown to the wolves. There is an issue regarding procurement. Joining the dots between workers' rights and procurement is probably a good thing, but this has not been done as yet. I ask, as part of this process and review, that the Minister take into account issues of workers' rights in terms of conditions for the people expected to do this work.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas le Páirtí an Lucht Oibre as an rún seo a chur síos tráthnóna. Ardaím an cheist seo leis an Aire. Níl sí anseo ag an bpointe seo ach d’ardaigh mé léi é an tseachtain seo atá imithe thart. Tá 58 scoil curtha ar athló anois. Tá siad á gcur ar an méar fhada. Níl a fhios acu cén uair a thosóidh siad nó an dtosóidh siad. Tá litreacha nó ríomhphoist á seoladh amach acu atá ag cur achan rud bunoscionn. Tá cuid de na scoileanna sin - mar a dúirt mo chomhghleacaí anseo as Dún na nGall, an Teachta Pádraig Mac Lochlainn - lonnaithe inár gcontae féin in nDún na Gall. Labhair an Teachta Mac Lochlainn fadúda cúpla ceann de na scoileanna sin agus ba mhaith liom cuid eile a lua. Tá sé ráite sna meáin inár gcontae féin go bhfuil 16 de na scoileanna seo ar an méar fhada mar gheall ar an gcinneadh atá glactha ag an Rialtas.

It has been stated in the media that there are 16 schools in County Donegal affected by the Government's decision to pause these school building projects. Basically, the Government has thrown matters into disarray and no one knows when the projects will proceed. On previous occasions, I raised the matter of my local school, Scoil Chonaill, Bun Beag, which my children attended. There is an autism unit in the school. The school requires an extension. An extension has been approved but the project has been thrown into disarray. There is no clarity from the Department or the Minister with regard to what is happening.

Some of my colleagues referred to another school, namely, Gaelscoil na gCeithre Máistrí. I spoke to the principal of the school, several teachers and some of the parents who will be campaigning about this matter at the weekend. It has been 24 years. Imagine how terrible that is, going through your whole education system and teachers obliged to teach classes in prefabs day in and day out. There are a few blocks holding up the prefabs, but there are no blocks on the site. There is no school and no permanent building. It is prefab after prefab. The young kids point out the damp in the roof and the walls and on materials. The school finally got on the school building programme in 2016. It was allowed to proceed with getting a contractor appointed. A tender was approved 180 days ago. The tender lasts for 180 days and it is now up, which means the contractor can re-tender at a higher price as a result of inflation. The school has been waiting 24 years for a new building. It has been left in limbo by the Government. The Government should do the teachers, students and school community the courtesy of letting this and other projects go ahead. We know the schools will be built, the only question is when. The longer construction is delayed, the more these projects will cost.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I acknowledge the Labour Party for bringing forward this important motion. I must highlight the Minister's initial response. She set an unfortunate tone when she said that the motion represents yet another cynical attempt by the Opposition to undermine and misrepresent all that the Government continues to achieve in education. Are we not involved in successive campaigns by parents reaching out to us to tell us that their sons and daughters have experienced decades of learning in neglected school buildings and been left in limbo? Should we deny that? That is not cynical. It is advocating on behalf of our constituents and children who have the right to be educated in a decent standard of accommodation. There is nothing cynical about that.

It is cynical that the Government continues to reiterate the word "commitment". Commitment, when applied to this Government, is thrown around on the opposite side of the House and seems to have truly lost its meaning. Upon the announcement of the halting of 58 school developments, the Minister was quick to assure those affected that the Department remains committed to delivering these new buildings. It is a hollow promise to school communities, some of which have waited three decades or more for a building, without any timeline or a list of the projects. That is cynical. Commitment means nothing without outlining a concrete plan to achieve the relevant goals. The schools in question have received no timeline of works or date of completion from the Department. They are operating in limbo. These schools have no reason to believe that the Government is committed. Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have left some schools waiting for decades to secure suitable accommodation in which to provide students with a decent standard of education. A school in Dublin 1 has been mentioned several times today. I refer to Gaelscoil Cholásite Mhuire.

It has been operating in unsuitable emergency accommodation for 20 years, despite a suitable site being available since 2010,, but we are told that it is cynical to raise the matter in this Chamber. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, the school received news that building contracts were ready for a new building on Dominick Street, only for people's hopes to be dashed by the Government's decision to halt development on those 58 schools, of which Gaelscoil Cholásite Mhuire is one.

Construction for Gaelscoil Cholásite Mhuire is still ready to commence in April. This project would greatly benefit the regeneration of Dublin's north inner city and be a change with wide-scale benefits for the surrounding community. Parents in the area have stated:

If you mindlessly delay this project, you allow children to continue to inhabit a building, on Parnell Square, which is nothing short of dangerous. It is dilapidated. It is falling apart and it poses serious risks to the young students.

That is the testimony of the parents who are engaged in a campaign to tell their elected representative the reality on the ground. There is nothing cynical about advocating for that.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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Greystones Community College, North Wicklow Educate Together School, Blessington Community College, Gaelcholáiste na Mara in Arklow, Blessington Educate Together National School and Wicklow Town Educate Together National School are all located in my constituency of Wicklow. They have all had their permanent builds or temporary accommodation delayed, with no information being given as to when the projects might start or if they will start up again. Some schools do not know whether they will have accommodation available in September. If one looks at Blessington, we have a whole lot of four- and five-year-old children who do not know whether there will be room for them in the primary school. We have many sixth-class students who do not know if there is room for them in the secondary school. That is just not acceptable.

I understand the Minister is looking at this issue with the Minister for Finance and assessing the work programme. However, I ask the Minister of State, when he is calculating the costs of this and weighing up and balancing the books, to take into account: the human cost; the cost of the stress that is being put on students and children who do not know whether they have somewhere to go for school; and the cost that is being put on parents who are scrambling, trying to figure out where their children will go to primary or secondary school. It is incredibly invasive. When one is a parent and is worried about where one's children will go, it takes over every second of one's life. Parents spend years campaigning for schools, lobbying Deputies and the Department to try to get these schools in place and when those projects slow down and they do not know if they have places for their children, it is really stressful. I ask that the Minister of State make this child-centred, focus on the children and value the cost and stress that will be placed on children.

I do not know if it is the same throughout the country, but all of the schools I mentioned are non-denominational. It appears the delays are affecting the schools that are providing choice to our communities and to new families coming into our communities. That is something of which the Minister of State needs to be really cognisant. I ask that he does not put any more barriers in the way of parents who want a choice of ethos with regard to how their children will be educated. I also ask that the Minister of State makes sure that the Department communicates with the school. I know sometimes it goes through the patron body and does not always get passed down to the schools. Schools need to know what is happening. They need to know whether they will have their temporary accommodation in place in September or if they are permanent builds that were promised for many years, when or indeed if, they will happen. I ask the Minister of State to provide that certainty for schools.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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During the debate on the confidence motion this morning, we were told by several Government speakers about the strong population growth throughout the country. The problem is that one cannot have population growth without providing services in parallel. That is what continuously happens here. There are almost a 250,000 people living in County Kildare. It is the fourth most populated county, and has been so in the past three census. When people come into my constituency office to discuss the matter of school places, it comes as a complete shock that the Department of Education cannot count and cannot provide school places for children. Kilcock was referred to earlier. Some of the area around Kilcock is also located in Meath. There are two schools there. The child of one parent I talked to the other day is 18 out of 30 on the waiting list for one school. The position with the other school is the same, although there may be slightly fewer children on the waiting list. There are approximately 50 children in total on the waiting lists for two schools. We are being told - the Department gives these ridiculous replies - that there may be a duplication of applications, that it may be about school choice, that some towns have single-sex schools or that there may be external pressures. I will tell the Minister of State why it is happening. It is because there are not sufficient school places for children in the area. That is despite the fact that one could have predicted that those children would be living there. It is not good enough that we have this every year.

Kilcock is not the only place in which this is happening. We also have a Gaelcholáiste in Maynooth. There are six classes in the Gaelcholáiste. Where it is located? It is in rooms above a shopping centre. There is no window or natural light in the classroom. This school caters for two areas. There is no firm commitment on a date for a new school building.

In Celbridge, there are three schools for which the relevant project reached design stage but the Department of Education is dragging its heels. There is no space. One of the schools is a special school, St. Raphael's, for the most challenged children. St. Patrick's primary school has been in prefabs since its inception. They are nearly gone by their sell-by date. There is not another inch to put another prefab in Celbridge Community College. Where are those children supposed to go? When children in neighbouring areas cannot get into those schools, they have to get school buses, which are non-existent. We had one parent tell us in the past couple of weeks that the cost of getting their child a place will be €900. If there was a place available in the nearest school, the child could have free transport. That is the kind of thing we are seeing. One cannot grow the population without growing the facilities. We do not see that from the Department and we have the same problems every year.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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On behalf of People Before Profit, I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion, which we will be supporting. I specifically wish to say how incredible it is that in the third richest country on the planet, we cannot budget properly for the expansion of our education system and that we are making such a bags - to be frank - of the budgeting for the development of our schools. As has been pointed out to us by the various campaigns, of which there are many throughout the country that will be protesting and campaigning on this issue, the people who suffer the most are the kids with special needs. The kids with special needs will be impacted the most by any delays in providing the space and environment that will enhance their lives and allow their teachers and assistants to deal with them, assess them and teach them properly. We can safely say that in terms of its support for the inclusion of all children, especially all those with special needs, the Government is falling flat on its face.

Tomorrow morning, in Riverview Educate Together National School, which located in the Greenhills area, I will attend a protest with the teachers, parents, local community and other political representatives. Sanction for funding has been in place since last year regarding two blocks of prefabs for this very important school. The Minister of State should note that it is an Educate Together school. The school has been told that the first block will be put in place over the summer, but the Department has just informed those involved that the second block will be put on hold. Like so many other school buildings, the school has planning permission and a contractor, but building cannot proceed. We and the school believe these steps are too far and will lead to more expense and delays. In a period of high inflation, especially in the construction industry, we will see the cost of many of these contracts soar through the roof. It is not good enough that there is all this temporary accommodation for Educate Together schools. Something like 40 out of 100 Educate Together schools are operating in temporary accommodation. In short, the delay in this budget will lead to more money being spent.

Tá géarghá ann freastal, go cothrom agus go práinneach, ar dhaltaí sna scoilcheantair Bhaile Átha Cliath 2, 4, 6 agus 8 agus níos leithne ná sin. Bheadh Gaelcholáistí sna scoilcheantair seo mar bhuntáiste do na Gaelscoileanna sa cheantar. Chomh maith leis sin, níl Gaelscoil ná Gaelcholáiste ar bith i mBaile Átha Cliath 10, cé go bhfuil éileamh suntasach ann d'oideachas lán-Ghaeilge i measc mhuintir Bhaile Formaid. Tá siad sa tóir air seo ar feadh tamaill. Scríobh ár gcomhairleoir, Hazel de Nortúin, de chuid Phobal Seachas Brabús chuig an Roinn cheana féin chun é seo a phlé ach ní bhfuair sí focal ar bith ar ais.

There is a lot of work to be done and I do not think this topic is going to go away. We are the third richest country on the planet and we cannot fund our school projects. It is shameful.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I too commend the Labour Party on its very timely motion. Many schools across the State will be disappointed and anxious at this time because of the delay over construction. One particular school in my constituency is the Holy Family Community School in Rathcoole. It was built in the 1980s for 500 pupils and now has 1,000 pupils. Rathcoole is a burgeoning area that has seen massive growth in both construction and people, which is very welcome. Residents, pupils and teachers want to know about the construction of a new build. That is very important. This was at an advanced stage. Pupils and teachers had thought the work was going to begin very soon. It has been thrown into jeopardy as regards new construction. These educational spaces are just not conducive to a workplace. Some of the conditions that pupils and teachers find themselves in are pretty unbelievable in the 21st century. Some schools are outdated and antiquated. That is not me being negative. Just down the road from Rathcoole are some amazing schools the State has built in the past 15 years: beautiful aesthetic buildings, beautiful space and beautiful educational builds. The schools will want to know when Rathcoole in this instance will get the go-ahead in respect of construction. A number of other schools are in the same position, including Coláiste Pobail Fóla and Gaelscoil Lir in Saggart and Citywest. These are also areas that have seen massive growth in people, which is a good thing but people want to see schools and other construction in place.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I thank the Labour Party for bringing this important motion forward. Last week I raised the case of Gaelscoil Phádraig, one of the indirect victims of the 58 school delays. They still have not got a firm answer as to when their problem is going to be solved. I think they possibly have the record for delay, which is shocking. The school is in existence 27 years. It was founded in 1995 in a temporary location and moved to its current temporary location with prefabs in the year 2000. It has been there ever since. It was promised in 2007 that they would definitely have their permanent location within a two-year timescale and they have been told that pretty much every two years up until now. I say "indirect" because actually their permanent location exists in Loughlinstown but it is currently occupied by a special school that is waiting for its permanent location, the Ballyowen Meadows building, which is to be built in the Stillorgan area. There has been delay after delay. There are two schools delayed but the biggest victim of this is Gaelscoil Phádraig. The school community and pupils have gone through all the years of their primary education, and three or four generations of young people have gone through the school over 27 years, with all their time in a temporary location. There has been fantastic fortitude by the wonderful staff of the school but it is really outrageous they are waiting that long. They deserve a definitive answer, as does every other school that is anxious about these delays. When I asked the Minister of State last week, he said this was a matter of timing. They know that; it is 27 years of timing. Could they please have a definitive timeline that will ensure they will be in their permanent location by their 30th anniversary?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Canney is sharing time with Deputy Verona Murphy. Or rather Deputy Verona Murphy is sharing time with Deputy Canney.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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He has decided it is ladies first. I am glad I am in that category.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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You do not have anything for me with you today, do you?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Not at the moment. You are sailing close to the wind there, a Cheann Comhairle. On a more serious topic, this is going to sound rather unusual in that the meánscoil in Brownswood in Enniscorthy has been told it is going to get a new building on a new site. They do not want that. At a time when we have an issue with construction inflation and many of our projects being cancelled, what they do want is an extension, literally the physical amenity of a gym, that can be built by the current provider from which they lease the property. Being a meánscoil, it is not a simple thing to move this school. The catchment area is literally the whole of the county. What is being proposed is that it would be moved onto a site in the town of Enniscorthy. The belief, that is not being listened to, is that they will not increase the capacity of an Irish-speaking school where the predominant surrounding population are maybe foreign nationals and people who want to go to an English-speaking school. All we are getting back from the Department is that the site is purchased. I appreciate that but the site can well be utilised. It is not really suitable for a school because of the traffic management.

I have a number of other projects in County Wexford, including Kilrane National School which is looking for an ASD unit. I have the same with the CBS in New Ross, and Gorey Central School is looking for extra capacity, all of which would be covered if we put the project in Enniscorthy on hold, a project that is not wanted. There is a survey being carried out by the parents and school attendees who do not want to move. It is proven that there will not be an increase in capacity for pupils in an all-Irish speaking school to deliver education for the area in which it is going to be built. I ask the Minister of State to take that very seriously. We need to utilise the taxpayers' money for the maximum benefit of those who are paying it and those who are going to avail of it. We have a site purchased. We could consider maybe an Educate Together school but it is certainly is not appropriate to move the meánscoil there. I am delivering that message to the Minister of State directly because it does not appear to have got through. I am asking that we organise a meeting for the school to see if we can further its needs on the current site. Our national planning framework suggests we should utilise what we have and improve its carbon footprint. Ultimately, when this school is moved, if it is moved, that building is not going to be utilised for anything else. It is purpose built for the meánscoil and provided under lease to the Department. Many of its attendees come from the surrounding county. There is not a strict catchment area for the meánscoil. If we are making serious proposals about the Irish language, we should have it in a place where at least it will be supported, and that is not the town of Enniscorthy. Everybody, including most of the councillors, agree with that. It would be lovely to have a lovely new school but that is not the ask.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak. I compliment the Department of Education because any school that has been built, such as Clarin College in Athenry or the Presentation College in Athenry, or other schools I have seen around the place, are absolutely brilliant legacies to have. The problem is that is has taken years to get them to where they are. When they are built, the modern educational facilities we are now providing are a credit to the Department and their expertise. The issue we have right now regarding costs for schools is that the costs have risen. I understand the Department had to up its cost limit for schools by over 21% early last year. That is a fairly heavy lift to give at any stage, as I know from when I was in the construction business myself.

It was very hard to get the Department to lift the cost limit to any degree on the basis that it did not want to be upping the prices. In fairness, that is a problem. What it is missing for me is how come it is only now that we are putting a stall on projects. We should perhaps have been looking at how we would cope with this six months or a year ago. Perhaps we were.

There are a lot of schools in my constituency. For instance, there is a proposal to amalgamate the two national schools and a gaelscoil campus needs to be provided in Athenry. I understand the site has been procured. In Tuam, three national schools have amalgamated and a new 32-classroom school is due to be built in the centre of the town. Educate Together has to relocate to another building. A lot of work needs to be done.

Presentation College in Headford has been approved for an extension. Archbishop McHale College in Tuam wants to complete phase 2 of its project. High Cross College, a new school in Tuam formed following the amalgamation of the Presentation and Mercy secondary schools, will need facilities. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of expectation. It is very exciting.

Gort National School requires an extension. Last weekend, I visited Craughwell National School where an extension is being completed. When I was in the Office of Public Works in 2016, the project came to my attention. At that stage, we tried to get it through planning. It will only be completed in 2023. It is a major extension. The problem is that, as others have said, the journey a school goes on from when a need is identified to when it gets a key to go in the door is a fairly long one. We have to try to improve on that.

I was an educator before being elected to this House. If schools have the modern facilities to be able to teach people in a modern environment that is of utmost importance. We also have to remember that what we are designing now has to take into account our experiences during Covid so that we have no narrow corridors and more courtyards and circulation spaces so that the experience of going to school is a positive one. The projects I have seen built by the Department are top-class.

We need to make sure that we stay ahead of the costs. We will have to take more money from the budget for the national development plan and use it to meet inflation. That is the challenge for all construction and it is no different in education. I implore the Minister, Deputy Foley, to make sure there is an adequate supply of money to ensure that the exciting projects we are going to complete are done in a timely fashion.

Schools are communities comprising parents, teachers and students. There is an expectation created and everybody is involved. When fundraising is happening there is a feelgood factor, but the most important thing is that we should not let people down by delaying projects. It is important to publish information on the schools projects that have been stalled so that we clear the air and everybody knows what is happening.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I support the motion which is a sensible motion brought forward by Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, not the nonsense we had earlier of a phony vote of no confidence in the Government that it knew it would not win. It is jockeying for position with Sinn Féin and the other party on the left, the Social Democrats. There were antics, disgruntlement and interruption. It was a shocking debate. This is a reasonable and sensible debate.

We are all worried about the future of education. I have children and grandchildren in all strands of education, from naoíra to third level. Funding will be a problem. There is a lot of waste. I have been involved in many school projects and have been on boards of management. When an ASD unit costs upwards of €1 million there is something wrong. It is too much money. These units are badly needed in many schools.

Coláiste Dún Iascaigh in Cahir is a wonderful school which is expanding rapidly. There are a lot of newcomers. It is a great community which has a great welcome. There is an extensive plan for an ASD unit and other rooms. It is hoped it will not be one of the projects that is being pulled. Projects are being pulled because the Government has added significant cost with the pathetic nonsense of carbon taxes and all the other punitive taxes it has put on builders, building projects, building houses or whatever. Carbon tax is a direct penalty people on who are building. Builders who have contracts are receiving letters telling them to stall. We do not know where we are. This causes angst to voluntary boards of management. Fundraising is done by school communities. We need to treat school communities with respect. We are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We want a liberal agenda, but we do not talk about the cost of that and the costs that will be associated with that in the decades to come.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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Earlier this month, it emerged that 58 school building projects are being delayed because of funding pressures. The delays are likely to affect tens of thousands of students who, in many cases, have been in temporary accommodation or prefabs for years. The development comes amid pressure on post-primary level, in particular, due to a population bulge and the need to find school places for Ukrainian students.

The multidenominational body, Educate Together, has stated that the Department of Education has told it that some projects due to go to construction in 2023 are now on hold. The Department of Education has blamed funding pressures and stated that a review is being conducted, whatever that means. Where has the money gone? Many schools in west Cork want money for their new works, but they will now be sidelined. Has the money gone to carbon credits in Slovakia to keep the Minister, Deputy Ryan, happy? The Government is forgetting about the people who need the money, namely the young people of this country. There are other worries in education.

I will be told I am wrong and that the Minister, Deputy Foley, may have some other business, but she seldom comes before the Dáil and should be here today to listen to the debate, which will not be very long. I have questions about St. Patrick's Boys' National School in Skibbereen, which has an excellent early intervention ASD unit. I was there recently and it went through all of the detail. The way it can progress children is phenomenal. The school does not know if there will be funding for the unit in the future. The same is the case with the Kilbrittain ASD unit. Will funding be available? We need answers. In fairness, I would like the Minister, Deputy Foley, to stand before us today.

We are still trying to get answers on school transport for at least ten students from Carhue and Bandon who attend Laragh National School. The issue continued on last year and we are now into 2023. The students in Carhue cannot get school transport. It is the same in Ballinhassig. There is one issue on top of another. We are continuously hearing the Minister attacking religious orders and a change in patronage. It is the same thing Ruairí Quinn was shouting about and never got anywhere with. That is all we seem to hear from the Government, instead of standing by the people who have looked after schools for decades.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I, too, thank the Labour Party for this motion. Schools like St. Oliver’s in Killarney, the Presentation in Killarney and St. Brendan’s Secondary School have had a massive increase in the number of pupils because of the influx of the Ukrainian fraternity. They need more facilities. Schools in places like Faha, Listry, Fossa, Teernaboul and Raheen have all done wonderful work. The teachers and all the people working in those schools have done wonderful work, but they need more facilities to cater for the massive influx. This is urgent. It is an emergency. I hope the application from Knocknagree National School is not one of the 58 because it has been on the list for a long time.

There are other issues such as school transport. There is a difficulty with acquiring new buses. Contractors have asked that the 20-year rule be extended for two or three more years. If a bus is in good working order and passes the test, it should be allowed to continue in service.

We need more SNAs. Early assessment for children with autism is vital. Parents are at their wits’ end trying to get early assessments and the current situation is not good enough.

Another vital part of education that has developed are the crèches. The people working in them do not get paid when the school term finishes.

They should be employed all year round like teachers.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I wish to share time with Deputy Joan Collins and Deputy Harkin.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I thank the Labour Party for putting forward this motion. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on it. The Government's decision to halt the 58 school building projects is not only disgraceful but nonsensical. The fact that the Minister for Education is refusing to provide a list of the affected projects and their costs is completely unacceptable. There is no excuse for this secrecy towards Members of Parliament or the public. The public have a right to know where public money is being spent and where it is being pulled. I asked the Minister last week and I will ask again today what she is hiding from the Opposition. When will she publish the list of delayed school building projects?

One school that we know will be affected is Gaelscoil na gCeithre Máistrí in Donegal town. The stalling of the Gaelscoil building is devastating for Donegal and for me represents the complete disregard for acceptable standards for educational buildings and for education through our country's national language. The Gaelscoil has been in second-hand prefabs for 24 years, many of them damp with broken floors and windows. How is this acceptable? How can we expect to educate children and facilitate teachers in such an environment? It took the school a long time to get on the building list in the first place, and after finally getting on the list in 2016 seven years later, nothing has been built. Now the Government wants to stall the project indefinitely, although the school had a contractor ready to go, which puts the school at risk of losing the contractor and starting the tendering process all over again. I call on the Minister for Education to visit Gaelscoil na gCeithre Máistrí in Donegal town and to engage with the board and management on the issue.

I also support the call in the motion to ensure that no child would be left without a place on the school transport scheme. Going forward, concession ticket holders need to be included in school bus numbers so that adequate space can be arranged before the school year begins and all children can be catered for.

In addition, I support the call for the return of the publication of leaving certificate results in August. The delayed release of results puts massive strain on students and universities and makes it difficult for applicants to secure places in other jurisdictions that need it. In particular, this affects my constituency of Donegal, where many students go to college in the North. The proportion of students from the Republic going to college in the North is down from more than 4,000 in 2010 to just over 2,000 in 2021. The housing crisis has meant that students are under enough stress to secure accommodation as it is, and this stress is only heightened when results are published so late, causing a frenzy to secure accommodation in such a short timeframe. Students should have the opportunity of going elsewhere, given the fact that, sadly, we have very little to offer them in terms of security. That is the situation they face.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I support the motion being put forward by the Labour Party. There has been far too little action from the Government for the thousands of families waiting for new schools, school modernisation, or school places. The situation is not improving. It just goes to show how seriously the Government is taking this.

I received a reply to a parliamentary question from the Minister for Education yesterday on class size. It said the Minister is delighted to have the investment in budget 2023-2024 to bring down class sizes to 23 pupils per teacher. The EU average is 20 pupils per teacher. As one of the richest countries in Europe, can we really not match the EU average? It is something we should have done way before now. How come other governments can do this with less money but the Government cannot? There is a clear lack of ambition and investment in education from the Government.

I recognise that the school meals programme has been extended in DEIS schools, and potentially to primary schools outside the DEIS area next year. I welcome that. However, the Minister has still not deal with some of the serious issues, in particular the 58 schools whose capital projects have come to a grinding halt. We cannot even get a list of those schools. The only way we can find out anything as public representatives is by hearing what is happening when emails are sent to us.

I want to finish by referring to part of a letter I received from a parent as an example of the situation being experienced. The parent says they are desperately asking for a call to action regarding her children's primary school, Riverview Educate Together National School on Limekiln Avenue in Dublin 6. The letter states they are in dire need of additional space for current and incoming children. Currently, the school has no space for resource. The calm space is in a repurposed toilet block and individual and group resource teaching takes place in the small main corridor of the building. The principal and secretary share a space that also doubles up as a sick room, extra maths classroom, and time-out space for poor behaviour. The staff at Riverview have built the school but it is only the tiny beginnings and they need that extra money to finish the structure.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I thank the Labour Party for this motion. In the short time available to me - just over two minutes for an intervention - I want to raise school accommodation in the constituency I represent. I have time to mention just two schools, but there are others and I have written to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and to the Minister, Deputy Foley, about them. The first school is in north Leitrim. It is a small school in a place called Leckaun. The original application for additional accommodation for this school was made in 1993. That is 30 years ago. The current principal was in third class at the time. Last August they were told that the application was at the final stage of assessment. This school has four teachers with two classrooms and each classroom is 30 sq. m in size with 25 pupils. That is about 1 sq. m per pupil. It gives the Minister of State some idea. The pupils are packed like sardines. The special education teacher is teaching in the corridor and when the teacher who teaches English as an additional language, because there are a number of Ukrainian students there, is there for ten hours a week, they are in the office. When they are teaching there is no space for a principal or a school secretary. It is a great school in a vibrant community but there are real health and safety issues and they must be addressed with additional accommodation. I ask the Minister of State to please give it his best attention.

At the other end of the county there is Scoil Mhuire in Carrick-on-Shannon, which is waiting and waiting. Is it one of the delayed school building projects? I do not know. Nobody seems to know what is happening and it is causing huge concern in schools and among school communities. In 2013, two schools amalgamated. Since then, the number of pupils has doubled and schools are struggling to cope across two campuses.

A technical report from the Minister of State's Department has painted a damning picture of conditions at the school: undersized classrooms with major defects, poor ventilation, water ingress under the floors and cracks in the walls. Storage spaces and corridors have been converted into special-education rooms. The school is on two campuses and both are too small for a new school to be built on. Parents, teachers, boards of management, pupils, the local authority and literally everybody in Carrick-on-Shannon is saying a new primary school is a necessity and must be delivered.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis na Teachtaí as an méid a chuir siad leis an díospóireacht seo. Ba mhaith liom a chur ina luí ar na Teachtaí go bhfuil an Rialtas ag infheistiú leibhéil maoinithe nach bhfacthas riamh roimhe seo san oideachas agus i bhfoirgnimh scoile, agus go bhfuil clár oibre an-uaillmhianach ar bun a dhéileálfaidh le go leor de na saincheisteanna a ardaíodh sa rún. Ardaíodh ceisteanna tábhachtacha inniu.

Mar Rialtas, aithnímid go hiomlán an tábhacht a bhaineann le córas oideachais uilechuimsitheach ina bhfuil rochtain ag gach páiste ar eispéireas oideachais atá oiriúnach dá riachtanais agus a thacaíonn lena bhforbairt acadúil agus phearsanta araon. Tá an Roinn Oideachais ar an eolas faoi na saincheisteanna a bhfuil taithí orthu ar fud chóras na scoile agus tá sí ag obair go gníomhach chun dul i ngleic leo go léir.

Tá cuntas teiste láidir ag an Roinn maidir le tionscadail tógála scoile a chur i gcrích. Faoi Thionscadal Éireann 2040, tá €4.4 bhilliún á infheistiú againn sa tréimhse 2021 go 2025, chun acmhainn a chur leis agus áiseanna scoile a fhorbairt agus a uasghrádú ar fud na tíre. Cuireadh níos mó ná 180 tionscadal tógála scoile ar fáil le linn 2022 i ngach dáilcheantar ar fud na tíre.

I measc na mbrúnna ar chlár caipitil na Roinne tá soláthar cóiríochta do leanaí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta oideachais acu, chomh maith le líon mór daltaí ón Úcráin agus faoi chosaint idirnáisiúnta, chomh maith le brú leanúnach boilscithe. Tá sé sin luaite ag na Teachtaí agus tá sé ar eolas agam i gContae na Mí.

Tá iarracht déanta ag an Roinn pobail scoile ábhartha a chur ar a suaimhneas go ndéanfar tionscadail tógála scoile atá ar feitheamh faoi láthair a chur chun cinn agus a sheachadadh a luaithe is féidir. Tá sé mar aidhm ag beartas an Rialtais maidir le tacaíocht a thabhairt do leanaí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta oideachais acu a chinntiú go mbeidh rochtain ag gach leanbh a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta acu ar oideachas atá oiriúnach dá riachtanais. Is príomhréimse tosaíochta don Rialtas seo é soláthar oideachais speisialta, agus beidh sé seo amhlaidh freisin amach anseo.

Geallann clár an Rialtais athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar an scéim iompair scoile agus tá athbhreithniú mór ar siúl. Táthar ag súil go gcríochnófar na céimeanna deiridh den athbhreithniú seo go luath le moltaí maidir le feidhmiú scéim iompair scoile na Roinne amach anseo.

Tá an Rialtas ag comhlíonadh a thiomantais freisin chun méideanna ranga a laghdú, le cóimheas múinteoirí daltaí ag leibhéal íseal stairiúil i mbliana ag 23:1 sa bhunscoil, agus táthar ag súil le tuilleadh laghduithe an bhliain seo chugainn.

Leanann Coimisiún na Scrúduithe Stáit ag obair go dian chun próiseas na scrúduithe a ullmhú don ardteistiméireacht 2023. Tá aghaidh á tabhairt ar fhachtóirí a raibh tionchar acu ar uainiú thorthaí scrúduithe Stát in 2022 mar chuid den phleanáil do 2023. Tá an Rialtas tiomanta do chinntiú go bhfreastalaíonn an ardteistiméireacht ar riachtanais dhaltaí na hÉireann, agus tá clár oibre uaillmhianach ar siúl le haghaidh sraith shinsearach athshamhlaithe ina bhfuil an scoláire i gcroílár a dtaithí sa tsraith shinsearach.

Is é cuspóir an Rialtais 400 scoil ilchreidmheach ar a laghad a bheith sa chóras bunscoile faoi 2030 chun rogha tuismitheoirí a fheabhsú. Tá dul chun cinn déanta le blianta beaga anuas i dtreo líon na scoileanna ilchreidmheacha a mhéadú.

Tá sé i gceist againn athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar an bhforáil a ligeann do scoileanna, más mian leo, an nasc atá ag dalta le scoil a chur san áireamh de bhua gur fhreastail tuismitheoir nó seantuismitheoir ar an scoil roimhe sin agus cinneadh á dhéanamh acu maidir le hiarratas ar ligean isteach sa scoil sin.

Beidh bunú an tionóil saoránach maidir le todhchaí an oideachais ina ábhar do chinneadh Rialtais agus do rúin ón Dáil agus ón Seanad ag an am cuí, agus tá oifigigh na Roinne ag féachaint ar an mbealach is fearr le hionchur cuí a dhéanamh sa phróiseas réamhthionóil.

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí as na ceisteanna a ardaigh siad agus le Páirtí an Lucht Oibre as an rún. Tugann sé deis dúinne chun cur síos a dhéanamh ar thiomantas an Rialtais córas oideachais den chaighdeán is airde a chur i gcrích – tá sé sin mar chuspóir ag gach duine sa Teach - agus an áit a bhfuil gach leanbh agus duine óg ag tacú go gníomhach lena gcumas iomlán a bhaint amach.

It is important we acknowledge the great progress made on school buildings across the country in every constituency, as Deputies have done. Everybody can see the benefits. We all have cases of difficulty in our constituencies. I assure the House that the Department is fully aware of schools that are in the circumstances in question. We have heard from the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Taoiseach that they expect this matter to be resolved in short order. I hope that will happen and that we will see the projects come to a conclusion. I hope we will have suitable accommodation for every student, particularly those with special needs, but recognising the pressures on the education budget at present. It is important to do that. In fairness, the Deputies have acknowledged that. We are all working together to get the best possible education facilities.

Various points have been raised by individual schools and I am aware officials are taking good notes about them. Deputy Catherine Murphy raised an issue that also concerns my local area, the issue at Millerstown, Kilcock. I will certainly put education provision in that area on my agenda. The circumstances obtain throughout the country, not just in certain constituencies.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit agus leis na Teachtaí go léir a labhair sa díospóireacht ar oideachas. On behalf of the Labour Party, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, for their contributions and the support of all colleagues in the House who spoke on this important motion we in the Labour Party have submitted. I commend in particular Deputy Ó Ríordáin, our education spokesperson, who crafted the motion and spoke so powerfully about it. Our aim in tabling the motion is to see an improvement and build upon progress that has been made, and to acknowledge where more needs to be done to make our education system better for children. We have all acknowledged the progress that has been made and we have acknowledged fairly what more needs to be done.

I wish to acknowledge a couple of transformative moments in the history of the education system in this State, starting with one related to a former Minister for Education from the Minister of State's party, namely, Mr. Donogh O'Malley, who in September 1966 made an historic speech announcing he would introduce free secondary school education with effect from 1967. At the time he made that groundbreaking announcement, 17,000 children finishing primary school education each year did not go on to second level. Consider the great progress that resulted from the announcement and the major contribution it made to the well-being and prosperity of our society.

Another transformative moment, which Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke about and which the Minister, Deputy Foley, acknowledged, relates to the enormous contribution of a Labour Party colleague, former Minister for Education Niamh Bhreathnach, who, sadly, died earlier this year but who, in her time as Minister, introduced pioneering reforms, notably the abolition of third level fees and the Breaking the Cycle programme, which she introduced in the 1990s. This programme would later be developed into the DEIS programme. As a result, we now see an enormous improvement in school completion rates and how we tackle poverty. We all know education is the key route out of poverty and disadvantage. Our motion seeks to build on these issues.

In the brief amount of time I have before I hand over to my colleague Deputy Duncan Smith, I want to refer to three aspects of our motion in respect of which I believe things should and must improve. The first relates to school building. Colleagues have raised the issue of the 58 schools in respect of which we know building has been slowed down, delayed or paused. This is of genuine concern to all of us. I have raised this issue with the Minister and indeed the Taoiseach because it has affected four urgent school construction projects in my constituency, Dublin Bay South: Shellybanks Educate Together National School and Sandymount Park Educate Together Secondary School, both in Sandymount, and the two Educate Together schools, both primary and secondary, in Harold's Cross.

I have had occasion to visit the campuses in Sandymount and Harold's Cross recently. These are hugely successful and rapidly growing school communities that are already outgrowing the buildings on site. They have been promised urgent construction on what are already busy sites and we learned very recently that the building works have been paused. This is causing consternation and distress among affected parents, children and school communities. The Taoiseach provided me with an assurance in the Dáil last week that additional funding would be provided this year to those four schools and others affected to ensure the resumption of the necessary works, but I noted that the Minister's contribution did not commit to that funding being provided this year so I ask the Minister of State to take this issue back to the Minister and the Government to ensure we see urgent progressing of paused construction works, not just in my constituency but also in respect of other affected schools.

Others have spoken about school patronage. I very much welcome the Minister's commitment to see 400 multidenominational schools in place by 2030. However, I am concerned by the Taoiseach's recent remarks that he would not support a forced secularisation of the education system. That is a bad faith interpretation of what is proposed. All of us want to see the necessary choices for parents. All of us recognise the increasing number of parents who are choosing multidenominational schooling for their children and who want to move away from the former domination of our school system by the Catholic church in particular but by church doctrine, so I want to put that on the record.

In respect of autism and special needs and the significant need for children with special needs to have accommodation and decent and effective education systems, we still have far too many children who are left in limbo and with delays in diagnosis and finding school places. I pay tribute to the parents in my constituency: Involve Autism: D6/D6W & Surrounds; Neurodiversity Irishtown, Ringsend and Pearse Street; and Neurodiversity Sandymount, among other organisations who are working so hard to secure necessary places for their children. I appeal to the Minister of State to ensure the necessary resources are committed in terms of special needs assistants, SNAs, units and special classrooms to ensure all our children get the education they so urgently need.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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It is refreshing to stand up and respond to a debate. With some of our Private Members' business, we not only have to respond to slings and arrows thrown by Government but sometimes to slings and arrows thrown by others in opposition, but we did not have to do that today. What we have seen over the past two hours is an expression of the depth of experience and challenge we as public representatives on all sides see in our communities in primary and secondary education in particular. I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin, our education spokesperson, for bringing forward this motion today. This motion captures a lot of the work he has driven on behalf of the Labour Party, campaigns we have been running for many years. This is not a Private Members' motion for the sake of a Private Members' motion sake. This is building on work and campaigns my party is passionate about and passionate about delivering.

We all see the challenges in our communities. We see the inconsistencies in education provision and the education system. Issues include how DEIS status is ascribed to various schools. There is a town in my constituency with one secondary school and three primary schools. The secondary school has been allocated DEIS status but not one of the primary schools has been allocated it. It makes no sense given this is a town that is distinct in terms of its borders from any other town. It is not as if the primary schools are in a hinterland or a neighbouring town. They are in this one town and it does not make sense how DEIS can be ascribed to one secondary school and not one of the three primary schools.

When it comes to the division of patronage, in my own town of Swords, there can be two Educate Together primary schools but not one Educate Together secondary school. There can bee three education and training board, ETB, secondary schools but only two new ETB primary schools. It is not joined-up thinking and planning. Education is one area where we can do that. We do it in our development plans in terms of places for new school buildings and in terms of how towns will develop. We know what the population increases are going to be, yet we still cannot plan school provision. Within that, we cannot plan a fair division of school patronage and a division of school patronage that makes sense. Where there is a Gaelscoil, why is there not a Gaelcholáiste? There are people in Swords who send their children to the Gaelscoil, and for secondary school, they must go to the Gaelcholáiste in Deputy Ó Ríordáin's constituency, Gaelcholáiste Reachrann, which we visited together, or up to Balbriggan. It is not good enough.

We have all spoken about the need for new buildings. I am working with Independent Councillor Joe Newman on River Valley Community National School on whose board we sit. Not only does this school not have its own land, it does not have commitments on when it will get its new school building. It is a vibrant school for the third largest town in Ireland. It is a similar situation with Broadmeadow Community National School. This school has the land but has not got a commitment on new buildings. St. Finian's Community College is the only DEIS secondary school in Swords. You could write a saga about the lack of progress in delivering a new school building there. We are still no closer despite visits by the Minister for Housing, Heritage and Local Government and others to the school. It is deeply frustrating when great teaching bodies, parents' associations and student bodies are being let down by the failure of the Department of Education to deliver new school buildings.

This motion is not being opposed by the Government. It is being accepted and we are not naive enough to think that what we have called for will be delivered, but could the Government look at our calls? In respect of the lowering of the DEIS pupil-teacher ratio to 15:1 and the work pioneered by our visionary former Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach, in the 1990s, we can deliver it and we can strive towards it. We need to do this if we are to tackle poverty and disadvantage. This is where we can do it.

We need a national autism strategy. We have been campaigning for that for a number of years and, led by Deputy Ó Ríordáin, we will continue to bring it up. All our asks here are needed and credible if we are to have an education system of which we can be truly proud and over which we can truly stand. I thank everyone for contributing to the debate. It was a good and even debate that showed the depths of the challenges we face in our education system.