Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Hundreds of parents are today living the nightmare of the prospect that their children were operated on unnecessarily. On foot of whistleblower allegations, an audit was carried out into paediatric hip dysplasia surgeries at three Children's Health Ireland hospitals. The audit, which has been published in full on The Ditch website, found that hundreds of children who were operated on between 2021 and 2023 did not meet the threshold for this surgery. It recommends that 561 children be recalled and independently assessed. This is very serious.

We have received dozens of emails and phone calls from parents since my colleague an Teachta Pearse Doherty raised this scandal in the Dáil on Thursday last. Parents are at their wits' end having received letters from Children's Health Ireland to inform them of the audit. The parents were provided with an email address in those letters, but many are telling us that they are emailing and getting no response. They are also ringing but getting no answer. This is heaping stress on top of stress.

One mother contacted us to say that she had received two letters because her twin daughters were three years of age when they had surgery in 2023. She stated:

It took them months to recover, to learn to walk again, not to mention the agonising pain each of them were in and the sleepless nights crying in pain. We want to get to the bottom of how they could put vulnerable children through this.

A second parent wrote:

One of my daughters had both hips done and we have received a letter. I am sick with nerves at the outcome of this. Families deserve to know sooner rather than later.

Another mother states her daughter had the surgery in 2023, days before her third birthday. She wrote:

I am heartbroken to think I put my little girl through so much pain if there was never any need for it. She had to be lifted and carried for over a week after the surgery. She was afraid to go to the toilet the night and day after surgery, she was in so much pain.

We know of cases where parents sought a second opinion when their child was scheduled for surgery and, incredibly, were told that not alone did their child not need the operation but also that they did not in fact have hip dysplasia at all. Parents of children who had operations a decade ago are also receiving letters. There is now a genuine fear that these practices were going on long before 2021. I would like to know how many letters have been issued. I want to know how many children have been affected.

Parents are angry that Children's Health Ireland will conduct the follow-up assessments because they have completely lost confidence in that organisation. Who could blame them? Children's Health Ireland is an organisation mired in scandal. The controversies pile up and the Government sits on the sidelines incapable of getting a handle on things. Tá na céadta tuismitheoir buartha gur chuireadh a bpáistí tríd obráidí tromchúiseacha gan ghá ag CHI. Ní mór don Rialtas na freagraí atá ag teastáil ó na dtuismitheoirí seo a fháil dóibh. The Government needs to get on top of this. What action has it taken to uncover the full extent of this scandal? For how long has it been going on? How many letters have been issued? How many children are affected? Crucially, when will parents be told whether their children were operated on unnecessarily?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is very traumatic for any young child to go through surgery, irrespective of the gravity of that surgery. Equally, it is very traumatic experience for parents. In that context, to have a clinical audit established at CHI and Cappagh hospitals on the surgical management of children with the condition known as developmental dysplasia of the hip is deeply traumatic and compounds the original trauma. It is extremely worrying for patients and will lead to anger if it transpires that operations were carried out that were not required at all.

People should remember that, first and foremost, this is a clinical issue insofar as the decision to take the step of surgery is a clinical one. It is predetermined and it should be done through multidisciplinary teams that decide whether a child needs surgery for a specific condition. It is extremely serious that the assertion is that quite a number of operations were carried out unnecessarily, notwithstanding the fact that we are talking about clinicians involved in surgery of this kind.

A clinical audit is being conducted by an external international expert on surgery for children with developmental dysplasia of the hip across CHI hospitals and at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh. I believe the Deputy knows the condition. It is a problem with the way a baby’s hip joint forms, and some children with it may require surgery. The purpose of the audit is to establish that surgical practice was in line with international standards and practices. The audit is close to its final stages. It makes sense for us to await the completion of the audit in order that we will have an informed, evidenced-based approach to the issue.

Letters are being issued to the families by CHI and Cappagh hospitals, and they will be writing to them to provide further information in respect of this. I expect the details of the audit to be published and fully shared with the parents before publication.

My understanding is that concerns relating to different thresholds of surgery being applied in CHI hospitals and National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh were initially raised internally in CHI under protected disclosure arrangements in September 2023. The Department of Health was notified about this matter on 9 May 2024.

The audit process, as I have said, is at an advanced stage with clinicians to provide feedback on the draft report to the expert author by Friday, 21 March. Patient safety precautions are being put in place and a multi-disciplinary team is looking at all of this in a comprehensive way.

This is deeply worrying for the patients. We have to wait for the completion of the audit and the presentation of the findings to the parents, and then take what action is required also. It goes to the very heart of the clinical practice and standards that applied.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is important to acknowledge the trauma to any child undergoing a surgery but the very idea a child would be put through that unnecessarily is doubly traumatic. Parents are now faced with the scenario of not knowing. The audit may only be in draft form but the letters have been issued. They are arriving to families. This stress and distress is very real in the here and now and the Taoiseach's argument that we simply need to wait and wait will weigh very heavily on those families who want answers now.

The Taoiseach says the HSE was made aware of these matters in May of last year. Can I ask when the Minister for Health was made aware? It seems to me an extraordinary thing that a year later parents are being told, and they are being told again to wait and wait. Can the Taoiseach tell us how many letters and how many children there are and how long was this scandal in the making? Was it, as we now suspect, not simply between 2021 and 2023? Does it go back as far as a decade?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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First of all, no one is being asked to wait and wait. There has to be a proper audit done of this and then there has to be a proper look back to cover as many children as possible who would have had this surgery to have completeness and to do a comprehensive look back on the specific surgery. In my view, that is the correct thing to do. Yes, correspondence is going out to parents; that is important as parents have to be contacted. I will discuss this, obviously. Once the audit is done, there has to be full transparency in respect of not just the audit but all aspects of how the case, or this issue, will be dealt with from here onwards. It is very worrying that an audit has been found necessary in the context of standards of clinical care.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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When did the Minister know?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not have the precise timelines on that.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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He does not know when the Minister knew.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I gave the Deputy the date in terms of the Department. Tá sé dochreidte ar shlí. Níl aon amhras ann go bhfuil tuismitheoirí ar fud na tíre an-bhuartha faoin méid atá tar éis tarlú. Caithfidh muid dul i ngleic leis agus tuarascáil chuimsitheach a chur os comhair na dtuismitheoirí agus an phobail i gcoitinne.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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This April Fool's Day we are bracing ourselves for the impact of the most foolish April Fool of them all. I am talking, of course, about Trump's tariffs, the scale and scope of which we will learn tomorrow. Not content with damaging his own economy, he has now got his sights set on ours too. Reportedly, even within his own administration, there is no knowing yet what exactly he has planned. Indeed, he may not even know himself.

In that context, I was glad that the Tánaiste responded positively to my request in scheduling a briefing last week for Opposition leaders to hear from officials in his Department about the likely impact of tariffs. I thank the Tánaiste and his officials for what was a comprehensive, but deeply worrying, briefing.

Clearly, we cannot take the threat of tariffs seriously enough. We know that a significant fall in exports to the US could mean significant job losses here and we know how reliant the Exchequer is on corporation tax, a disproportionate amount of which is from the profits of US multinationals.

The place we find ourselves in today reflects the risks that the Taoiseach's party and Fine Gael have taken with the economy - first, in failing to diversify our economic base. Our economic model has clearly become over-reliant on a very small number of big American corporations and that is widely acknowledged as a risk. Second, there is a serious risk to our economy because the Government has contrived to waste what has undoubtedly been a boom.

Our eye-watering corporation tax gains have been squandered because the Government did not use the money to invest in the sustainable infrastructure we so badly need. Affordable housing, decent public transport, universal childcare, fit-for-purpose healthcare and clean energy supplies are what we should have in place here in Ireland, given the budgetary figures we have had. Instead, the Government has favoured one-off measures in recent budgets. It gave a few quid off skyrocketing electricity bills and a tiny amount towards spiralling rents but nothing meaningful for those who are in such great need in a housing and a cost-of-living crisis.

This is crunch time. Will the Taoiseach indicate that the Government's response to tariffs will prioritise public investment and targeted measures to help those who need them most? Will the Government act to safeguard jobs and livelihoods? We have welcomed the index-linking of welfare payments - that is very good to see - but now is the time to prepare for potential job losses. Since the pandemic, we in Labour have been calling for a State-backed short-term wage subsidy scheme to protect workers during periods of uncertainty. It would work like the employment wage subsidy scheme, which was introduced during the pandemic. Such schemes have long been in place in countries such as Germany. We have termed our scheme the ObairGhearr scheme. It would subsidise employees to work shorter hours when companies encounter difficulties and provide access to upskilling programmes. It is a vital type of model to protect workers' dignity and the livelihoods of families and households. Will the Taoiseach commit to looking at our proposals for this short-term working scheme and give us a commitment that the Government will respond to Trump's tariffs tomorrow with effective, targeted measures to protect not only businesses but also families and struggling households?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Níl aon amhras ach gurb é seo an t-ábhar is tábhachtaí a bheidh os comhair na Dála seo agus os comhair na tíre sna blianta atá romhainn. Bunathrú atá faoi chaibidil ag údaráis na Stát Aontaithe agus Uachtarán na Stát Aontaithe maidir le tariffs agus cúrsaí trádala. Without question this is a fundamental shift in US policy. Tariffs are bad. They are bad for the world. They will create instability, uncertainty and a lack of predictability in the world economy. That will mean a pause in investment. Whatever about existing investments, decision-makers are pausing their investment decisions pending this settling down. That will have a dampening effect on economic growth, not just globally but also across Europe and in Ireland. It is clear from what we understand so far that we are looking at a universal applicability of tariffs in terms of countries and goods. We have a number of sectors. The US Administration is going to focus on five sectors, including semiconductors, wood, pharma and automotive, which is having a big impact already in some EU countries. The key issue, however, is that Europe does not want tariffs and wants negotiation. Europe will take a strategic approach in its response, and that is as it should be. We are part of the European Union and we will input into that response as to what is the most effective, strategic way to mitigate the impact of tariffs on Ireland and Europe. Tariffs will increase inflation, increase the cost of medication and increase the cost of groceries in America in particular and elsewhere.

I reject the Deputy's criticisms in terms of Ireland. Ireland has a broad base that comprises indigenous and multinational investment here and abroad. Irish companies are all over the world, and there is a connection. The FDI that came into Ireland spawned a lot of Irish-owned companies. These are now big strong companies that developed on the back of supply chains to the multinationals, particularly in the areas of project management and instrumentation. Take a company like Intel or some of the pharmaceutical companies. They are constructing plants all over the world. Very often, Irish companies will be found in the supply chains to those companies. It is far too simplistic to draw a distinction between the FDI sector and Ireland's SME sector. We need to diversify markets. We need to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA. I think the Labour Party was opposed to CETA.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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We had concerns about it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It had concerns. It was against it, and that was wrong.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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What I said earlier.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Our bread and butter is trade deals-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Yes. Hear, hear.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and we should support CETA. I would appreciate the Labour Party's support when we bring the legislation to ratify that deal before the House.

I will come back later in the next reply.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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All of us in this House agree that the tariffs Trump is proposing are bad for the worldwide economy. Indeed, we could be facing an international "Trump slump", as it has been described. The fear of tariffs itself is having a destabilising effect across Ireland and across Europe. We all appreciate that the EU has to respond in a strategic manner to whatever comes forward from the US tomorrow, but equally, we have to control the controllables here at home. The Minister for Finance has pointed out the need to invest in infrastructure, an acknowledgement that, as is widely accepted, we simply do not have the critical public infrastructure that should be in place at this point in time. I refer to housing in particular. We all know that is the biggest crisis facing the Government.

This is why Labour is offering a constructive proposal. Our ObairGhearr scheme could be transformational. It could have made a very significant difference during the previous recession. It would have enabled us to hold onto more of our construction workers. That would have meant we could have delivered more homes. We might even have been able to deliver 40,000 homes last year had we enabled construction workers to stay in Ireland via a subsidised scheme such as we have seen in Germany. Will the Taoiseach review our scheme and look at it as a potential way to help households?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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This is a different potential economic upheaval than the previous one. It is of a different structure and a different nature. We have provided for the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, which are providing substantial funding. We will have €16 billion by the end of this year in the Future Ireland Fund. Whatever we do, we should try to maintain that as a protector of the future and the generations who will require access to pensions and social protection and continuing investment in infrastructure. We will be prioritising investment in infrastructure in terms of water, the grid, the digital transformation of health, public transport and so forth.

In addition to that, Europe wants to double down on the Single Market. I agree with President von der Leyen on this. Ireland has to play its role in that because the Single Market has been good for Ireland. The savings and investment union is now being seriously pushed by the EU. Ireland will co-operate constructively to arrive at a landing zone that benefits Ireland and benefits the wider European Union in respect of releasing savings to enable investment to take place in Europe to a far greater degree than is the case at the moment.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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Tomorrow, Donald Trump will take a wrecking ball to the world economy. His goal is clear and unambiguous, that being, to cause maximum damage. Yesterday, Trump said his tariffs would make his country go boom, which brought to mind the Hindenburg disaster because, as far as plans go, tariffs are up there with filling an airship with flammable gas. Tariffs are toxic to trade and economic growth and America will not be immune from this poison, which is why fears of a recession in the United States are growing.

We are through the looking glass when it comes to the Trump Administration. Appeals to reason and logic are doomed to failure. As a small open economy, the threat to us is particularly serious. This is clear from the modelling that has been done. In the worst case scenario, up to 80,000 jobs could be lost or not created. Pharmaceutical exports to the US could halve.

As the world's largest trading bloc, the EU will have to respond to this unprovoked aggression, but it is crucial that any response is well-thought-out and measured. It is essential that our voices and national interests are represented in any EU retaliation.

As the Taoiseach will know, trade is an EU competency, but there is much that we can do domestically to prepare for this onslaught. In the short term, emergency supports may need to be put in place for impacted sectors. Allied with this, we should be turbocharging investment in critical infrastructure. We need to invest in energy, transport and water infrastructure to reduce costs for businesses and households. We need to invest in affordable housing to support our continued economic development.

We have no control over what will be announced tomorrow but we must use every lever we have here and at an EU level to mitigate the damage. What is the Taoiseach's position on tit-for-tat tariffs at an EU level? Will he outline any EU supports that will be made available for impacted sectors? The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund was initially set up to help workers who lost out on jobs due to globalisation.

Will the Taoiseach advocate for this fund to be repurposed to help workers impacted by these tariffs? What preparation is being done to introduce emergency domestic supports for impacted sectors and how does the Taoiseach intend to communicate these?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his question. The response has to be on an number of levels. First, within the European Union, we will be consulting with and inputting into the Commission. The design of countermeasures is important - that it is not a knee-jerk tit-for-tat-type of response. It has to be calibrated, it has to be strategic, to make sure that whatever do, we do not damage ourselves more by doing it. When I say "we", I mean Europe, with Ireland obviously as part of that. That is particularly applicable to the pharmaceutical sector. We have to weigh that up because a response could even be counterproductive and compound the problems. The Commission is working on that. It is aware of our views. We obviously have concerns in the agrifood area. The design of countermeasures will be critical in ensuring that we do that which is optimal for our workers. Protection of jobs is the number one priority of the Irish Government in all of this. It will take some time to unfold.

European did not start this; Europe does not want a tariff war. Europe wants negotiation. I hope, following Europe's response, we will get to negotiation with the US Administration and then get to some settled landing zone, but even that landing zone post negotiation will not be where we are today. We need to be upfront about that. As President von der Leyen said, the old order is essentially gone for now. Therefore, we have to adapt and innovate. Europe's strength is in doubling down on the Single Market and diversifying trade to other countries. This Dáil has had a strange approach to trade deals that the European Union conducts and has opposed them time and time again, vitriolically at times, which makes no sense in terms of where the Irish economy is. We need to wake up fast to the value and importance of the trade deals Europe can do. Counterintuitively, the best thing to do against the protectionist leanings of the US and others is to start doing more trade deals. I hope by the end of this year that Europe will have a deal closed with India. It is looking at Indonesia and it has concluded deals. We have to reflect on that very hard as an Oireachtas. Trade works for Ireland. If one takes the Canadian-European Union trade deal, trade has gone up 30% for Irish SMEs in the Canadian market. This was opposed by most of the Opposition-----

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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That is not true.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----on the grounds of the investor clauses and all of that.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Investor courts.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Dáil Éireann has not been in a position to ratify the CETA deal even though it has been in provisional operation since 2018. What does that say about Irish legislators in terms of what matters to the Irish people, what matters for Irish jobs and what is essentially the bread and butter of people's lives on the table?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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Workers' rights. Environmental legislation.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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This works for workers. The trade deal works for workers. That is the point.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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The Taoiseach just confirmed that trade with Canada is flourishing without the provisions of the investor court, so we can have strong trade without those provisions.

To get back to the key point about supporting workers and sectors impacted by the announcements that will take place tomorrow and thereafter, are there plans at EU level to put in place supports? The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund was a successful support. Will it be repurposed? Will the Taoiseach ask and lobby for that to be repurposed? Will he take on board this suggestion? It could be very useful. On a domestic level, what sorts of support will be put in place? When will the Government make decisions on those and when will they be communicated?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is far too early to make decisions in relation to that right now. We have to see where this lands. I do not believe the capacity to reshore pharmaceuticals in the short term is there. The issue in the short term is more the pausing of investment decisions for the future. That is what would concern me. American companies have grown strong in Ireland. This is a point we are making bilaterally to the US. They are an integrated part of a complex supply chain between here and the US. A lot of our products go to the US for finished product to be made there. There is a bit to go on this yet. I hope there will be negotiations following the EU response that can reduce tariffs significantly and that we can navigate our way through this with the objective of protecting jobs into the future.

It is a different structural issue economically that we have to come to grips with but again it is a bit early yet to almost be saying that certain job losses are inevitable. The pace of this is yet unclear. The impacts are unclear because I do not think we have witnessed such a universal application of tariffs before across the globe.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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Two weeks ago, I raised the crisis facing Sacred Heart Junior National School in Killinarden with the Taoiseach. It was forced to write to the Department of Education saying it would close its doors because it could not pay the bills. It first flagged a shortfall of €26,000 last October. The crisis worsened. The school was in touch with the Department repeatedly but no extra funding was forthcoming. Two weeks ago the Taoiseach said that he believed the issue was resolved. This issue is not resolved. The can has simply been kicked down the road by providing an advance on capitation funding, which means that, yes, the school is open today but the debt will be even worse come September.

Sacred Heart Junior National School is just the canary in the coalmine. The senior school at Sacred Heart faces a funding crisis come September. Last Friday I was contacted by the principal of another school, Holy Spirit Junior Primary School in Greenhills. She said:

The fact of the matter is, we have approx. €8000 in the bank. From this €8000 we are expected to pay €10,000 worth of utility bills, pay a caretaker, a bus escort and cleaner wages, buy resources for students, employ a plumber for a terrible smell on a corridor, not to mention all the other general maintenance costs including in the upkeep of our school building and grounds.

The school states clearly that without adequate financial support from the Department, it is facing "the very real possibility of having to close our doors".

The Taoiseach knows these are not two isolated examples. I know of others in my own constituency. Seven out of ten primary schools nationwide are running deficits. Hundreds are in acute financial distress, and the cause is clear. It was recognised by this Dáil last June, when it passed a motion saying that we have chronic underfunding of our primary schools. These schools have been just about surviving with cost-of-living supports that the Government now appears to be planning to stop. It leaves schools in the situation where they are expected to fundraise for the very basics to keep the schools open. It deepens educational inequality. It puts added stress on school communities. However, the Government is still throwing money at private schools. Last year the Government spent €143 million paying the salaries of teachers in private fee-paying schools and gave them ICT and capital funding grants worth €1.9 million. However, our public primary schools are faced with potential closure because the State refuses to adequately fund them.

Will the Taoiseach and the Government act to enable our primary schools to remain open? Does the Taoiseach accept that advance funding is not a long-term solution to the crisis facing these schools? Will he commit to doubling the capitation grant for primary schools and increasing the minor works grant and ancillary services grant? Finally, will he outline what the new DEIS plus status, which is promised in the programme for Government, will mean? What extra funding will be provided?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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First of all, no school should be in that position. I do not believe there was a necessity to write that letter to the parents at that time, to be frank about it. I have a long-time involvement in education. I have a lot of experience with the education world. In the past, any time a school was in difficulty, dialogue opened up with the Department and the Department always came in to help, particularly if a school was in extremis or in difficulty. My understanding is that the Department engaged with Sacred Heart school in December. The Department sought information but did not get any response in terms of the information provision. The Department will continue to engage. The Department was unaware of any letter being sent out to the parents at the time. I would say to schools generally that if they are in really dire circumstances, where they feel the necessity to write to the parents, they should contact the Department.

The capitation grant has increased significantly over the last two years, in particular three years. With the cost-of-living increases, there were very substantial allocations, as well as during Covid-19, in particular, way above the norm.

If we look at the investment in education over the past four years, it has been huge on the current and capital sides and on special education. The DEIS programme was widened and expanded very significantly. It was the largest expansion of DEIS ever, with consequential improved funding, provision of teaching posts and so on. That said, we acknowledge that there have been inflationary pressures on schools because of the crisis that was occasioned by the energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war and the post-Covid issue in terms of inflation. The Minister and the Department will work with schools that are in difficulty. We will also continue to improve the capitation rates that are paid to schools. There have been other supports as well in terms of other positions within primary schools, specific supports around technology and so forth. Suffice it to say that by any yardstick, the investment in education has increased very significantly in the past number of years, notwithstanding all the pressures people are facing, which I acknowledge.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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It is quite incredible that the Taoiseach is blaming a school, which was put in a position by his Government and by the Department of Education, for being in a situation such that the management felt there was no alternative but to say the school will close its doors. It is incredible. The Taoiseach is victim-blaming and gaslighting these principals across the country who likely do not want to be in this position. The Taoiseach says the Department was in touch with the school I mentioned in December and there was no response. What did the Department say? Its financial unit, the FSSU, contacted the principal in December and told her to reach out to her community to help fund the school. That is shameful.

These schools are not charities. Their principals should not be running around having to fundraise based on how much money is in their areas and how large a population is served by their schools. This is a basic public service that the State needs to provide. I have given two examples of schools in just one constituency where the principals are saying they will have no choice, if they do not get more money, but to close. A motion proposed in the Dáil by the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, recognised that there was chronic underfunding of our primary schools. The Taoiseach now seems to be stepping back from that acknowledgement. The answer is not to victim-blame the principals and schools but to provide proper funding for our primary schools so that they are not placed in this situation.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has an awful habit of trying to name-call and label people. He does it for political reasons. Sometimes, I question his sincerity in regard to these matters because a letter was sent-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am just saying what happened. I am not victim-blaming anybody. I was making a general point. I have been through this before with schools. We help schools when they engage with the Department. It has happened at different times that particular schools have had particular problems.

A letter was sent to the chair of the board on 14 March outlining the importance of the role of the FSSU, that is, the financial support services unit. That unit is there for a reason on behalf of the Department in supporting schools. The Department has engaged with the school since December and has asked the school to provide further information about its financial situation. The note I have says that is still awaited, but the Department may have received it since. We urge the school and the management to engage fully with the Department. It is currently engaging with the unit for this purpose. As the Deputy said, action was taken to deal with the school's immediate cash flow issues. Capitation grant funding due to be paid to the school was advanced. I have no doubt that the Department will be in a position to resolve those issues for the school in a sensible way. That is how to do things. That is all I am simply saying. I am not victim-blaming anybody.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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The principals will call the Government out now.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I would make the point that every child attending that primary school now has free schoolbooks, which those children never had before, because the previous Government took really decisive actions to make life better for kids in all schools.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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They need a school now.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Hot school meals is another initiative that was taken, but Deputy Murphy ignores all of that and makes assertions of neglect or whatever, which is not the case.