Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Teach seo. Tugaim tacaíocht do na moladh a rinne an Seanadóir Ruane, I support her proposal on ten days. It is important. We also need to look at the school's perspective. The last thing, from my experience, that schools do is suspend a student. They go through all of the processes diligently. School management and the teachers make every effort to ensure they keep all of the students as well as they can but, on occasion, unfortunately, they must make a decision for the common good of the rest of the students and the overall diaspora of parents. It is important to give a certain amount of flexibility to school authorities because I know they do it as a last resort.

I do not like going back to this, because it is always bandied about, but a deeper and important issue is financial support for schools and boards of management to support children who find themselves in difficulty. The Senator is a good example of this. Quite often, and Senator Ruane is a good example of this, all they need is a little bit of support to turn around and make a significant contribution to their communities. They are crying out looking for something, and very often schools do not have supports in place to help them. It is a balancing issue, but more resources can make a big difference.

I will support Senator Norris on something that will come up later with another amendment. My colleague, Senator Gallagher, has tabled an amendment on the Irish language. It is very important that we protect the Irish language and that parents and children who want to get their education totally through the medium of the Irish language are supported in doing so. It has a special place in our Constitution and it should be protected. Children and parents have that particular right. If children who do not have sufficient knowledge of Irish want to go to a Gaelscoil they should have the opportunity to go an Irish summer college or develop their vocabulary in Irish so they could be fluent. The English stream should focus more strongly on providing stronger and better classes in the medium of Irish and giving support for it. It is not a matter of diluting Irish language schools and Gaelscoileanna, it is actually a matter of strengthening it in the English-focused schools.