Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish everyone a happy St. Valentine's Day. Holidays like this tend to make those who are alone feel a little more isolated and vulnerable. I commend Senator Swanick's calls to set up a task force on loneliness and encourage all Members of this House to call on elderly neighbours or those living alone to wish them a happy St. Valentine's Day. Some people receive very little communication and a small gesture like this can go a very long way.

Many of us have raised the issue of divestment from church-run schools to Educate Together schools. This affects the Canal Way Educate Together school in Basin Lane. I have raised this in correspondence with the Minister for Education and Skills but no satisfactory solution has been reached. The school was established as a two-stream school and has been located in its current premises since 2014. Due to its success, there is an increased demand for places and the waiting lists are very long. Unfortunately, this demand has resulted in a severe accommodation problem. As a result, the school has been forced to offer only a single stream to new junior infants for the coming intake in 2018 and could have no space for a junior infants class in 2019. There is a clear and desperate need for further classrooms to be installed to adequately accommodate the needs of the local community and those of the parents who wish to send their children to these schools.

It has been brought to my attention that in this school, there is no special education teaching centre and it is reported that the school has only half the required number of toilets to meet the needs of the students. The lease on the school is so short that investment is difficult. This stems from a failure in the divestment process. Caveats placed on divested schools have been raised in this House. The Department of Education and Skills needs to examine Educate Together schools and the divestment process and act pragmatically to ensure that parents who wish to send their children to particular schools are allowed to do so, that these schools are facilitated and children are accommodated. We need to do this urgently because parents are waiting for places for their children in 2019 and they do not know if there will be room in certain schools.

Today, very important statements on Brexit are being made in the UK and in Europe. An independent study, published today by Copenhagen Economics, examined the impact of Brexit on Ireland. It finds that our economy will grow by 7% less than it would without Brexit in the worst-case scenario and by 2.8% less in the best-case scenario. We have already seen the consequences of Brexit. Senator Gallagher successfully amended the Order of Business due to the possible closure of a Kerry Foods plant in County Monaghan. Worryingly, the report also said that Brexit will have a negative impact on Irish wages for all skills groups. One scenario shows that real wages will be 8.7% below the 2030 non-Brexit scenario.

I welcome the new Brexit website, albeit that it is quite late. I would like to see proper policy decisions for small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs and larger enterprises. I have a small business in Crumlin and have had no interaction with the Government on how to Brexit-proof my business. The Government needs to make practical efforts and policy changes to mitigate the possible losses that will accrue when Brexit goes ahead.