Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the case of Chidi Muojeke who is threatened with deportation along with her family. They have been residents here for 12 years. She fled Nigeria after the death of her husband when she then became the property of her brother-in-law. She was subjected to domestic violence with no means of remedy. Unfortunately, domestic abuse is not viewed as valid criteria for refugee status in Ireland. I am calling for the inclusion of such abuse in the criteria and I ask that the Minister for Justice and Equality grant this very genuine family leave to remain here for its own protection.

I want to raise the issue of the ever-increasing administrative workload of teaching principals. Many teaching principals are based in small rural schools. They have been asked to take on this role in order to make the school viable. These people are real educational leaders in their communities but they are expected to teach several different primary-level students in one classroom as well as fulfil the vast array of other responsibilities. These teaching principals only get 15 days a year to carry out these administrative tasks. These tasks are important elements of keeping the school running such as maintaining contact with the Department of Education and Skills, Tusla, the INTO, the inspectorate, psychologists and local authorities. I have a whole list of duties that principals need to do. From talking to teaching principals in Mayo, I know that the situation is becoming intolerable. They are asking for one piece of administrative time per day per week, which would mean 36 such periods per year. They have been promised some form of resolution for ten years but have seen no improvement. In reality, these principals pick up a lot of the slack when it comes to providing State services. In many cases, they are the eyes and ears in terms of child welfare, whether it involves poverty, medical issues or educational development. Recently, the Minister announced new powers to compel schools to open special classes where any identification was needed. I very much welcome that but without cutting these principals some slack and allowing for the administrative duties they must do, this will not be possible. I have a list of the official duties that principals must fulfil during a school year. It is hard to imagine how any human being could get through this in a year never mind teach several classes at the same time. I want the Minister for Education and Skills to come to the House and to recognise that there is a problem here. I want a full debate on this matter. This is not something the Government can ignore. So many small schools rely on these teaching principals and it would spell disaster for many schools if they were to leave their posts. Many of them are talking about doing so. The Government should remedy this problem or reintroduce the principal post as full time. Doing nothing is not an option. The cost to the teachers, students and the communities is too much. I have just come out of a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. It is not a matter of resources. The committee was meeting PTSB and we discussed corporation tax. PTSB has not had to pay corporation tax for 23 years. All of that money, which I think was €260 million last year, could be used. All these teachers are asking for is one day per week where they can do this administrative work and do it quickly. We must remember that if something goes wrong within a school, some box is not ticked, something happens or something goes wrong, the buck stops with them. They need time and resources to be able to do their jobs. I ask that the Minister comes to the House to discuss this topic.