Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Seanad. The Minister of State is very welcome to the House and I thank her for her attendance.

At the outset, there are a number of people I would like to thank for assisting me in drawing up this legislation. I thank the various teaching organisations, the Irish Heart Foundation and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association with whom I spoke. I also thank a number of my colleagues in the Seanad and in the Lower House, who also assisted me in this work, Ms Maria Condon, who has done much work in this area over a period of time trying to highlight this issue and the need for it to be addressed, and the contributions of many others in this regard.

I learned much on my journey with this Bill. I started off by learning that when a child goes to a childcare facility, all the staff there have to be trained in first aid before they are allowed to work in it. When the child progresses and reaches the age of four or five, he or she goes on to primary school and then to secondary school. However, some parents do not realise there is no requirement on the staff in schools, whether teachers or special needs assistants, SNAs, to be trained in first aid. That is something I was surprised to learn. However, I acknowledge the work being done by many school principals and boards of management who are doing their own thing and are getting outside help from people to assist them and to teach them about first aid. However, the Department does not require them to do so.

My motivation, and where I got inspiration to do something about this, relates to an incident that occurred in a school in Monaghan town over three years ago. A young teacher was giving a class and halfway through the class, she had a suspected heart attack. She collapsed and fell to the ground and two students in the class went to her aid. They were able to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, and an ambulance was called. Thankfully, the teacher is now back working in the school. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the great work done by those two students and their quick thinking. Those two students were qualified in first aid and, thankfully, there was a happy ending to the whole situation.

Subsequent to that event, a number of teachers said to me that if the situation had been reversed, and something dreadful like that had happened to a student, not all teachers would have been qualified in first aid. That is a situation we need to address and that is purpose of my Bill.

I acknowledge that some great work is being done by the Irish Heart Foundation, which is travelling to schools to teach the teachers and then encouraging them to teach the students. However, it is important the Department of Education and Skills takes the lead in this area. For that reason, I decided, with the assistance of others, to try to bring in legislation that would address this issue. I was advised that the best way to go about this would be to break this down into two Bills, as outlined by the Cathaoirleach. The first Bill deals with the teacher training colleges so that when a young person goes to such a college to study to become a teacher, there will be a specific module dealing solely with first aid and mental health. The second Bill relates to teachers who are already qualified and are currently teaching. It seeks to provide for a curriculum to be organised, and delivered through continuous professional development or any other means decided on by the Department, to enable such teachers to receive qualifications in mental health and mental health first aid. As we know, first aid is not just for the body - it is also for the mind. It is very important to say that. Teachers have told me they are looking forward to the introduction of this legislation. I know that the greatest gift we can teach anyone is the gift of life. If the introduction of this legislation saves one person's life, it will be very worthwhile. The second part of this legislative proposal relates not just to continuous professional development, but to all other instances that can happen. Children can be asthmatic. A child can choke in the classroom. I am sure the Minister of State will agree that a broad range of circumstances can arise. We need to do some work in this area.

Mental health first aid is vitally important. We know that the children of today are under much more pressure than we were under when we were their age. It is important to recognise that. As Frederick Douglass famously said, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men". It is very important for teachers to be qualified to deal with physical situations confidently by providing first aid. Equally, they must be able to identify the symptoms of a child at the back of a classroom who is not participating. When they identify such signals, they should be able to intervene and handle the situation from there.

A teacher spoke to me one day about being approached by a young child who was feeling very anxious. This child was a very good sportsperson who excelled on the sportsfield and was a fantastic footballer. The teacher could not understand how this child was suffering from anxiety. Apparently, the problem was that the child got very uptight when it came to the actual game. It was affecting his mental well-being. It is important for teachers to be qualified to identify the signs and, more importantly, to be able to deal with these matters and put the child on the right path.

I hope the Minister of State will take this legislation on board. I hope my colleagues in the Seanad from all parties and none will find a way to assist us to draw up legislation that will address this issue and put it on a strong footing so that it is not left to boards of management, school principals or teachers to do it for themselves. There should be proper direction. A proper module should be drawn up so that our teachers are fully qualified in physical and mental first aid and, in turn, are able to pass their skills on to the children they look after. As I said earlier, the most important thing we can do as we travel through life's journey is try to save a life. This legislation gives us an opportunity to put that principle on a strong footing. I plead with all Members of the House to support this legislation.