Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I assure Senator Craughwell that, as a Kildare Senator and somebody who fought hard on behalf of the Defence Forces in the Dáil over the past four years, I will continue to do that and he will not be on his own.

I want to take up Senator Warfield on his comments. He said that An Taoiseach has not said anything on proposals for extending maternity leave. In fact, An Taoiseach said that he has spoken to the three Ministers involved from the Departments of Justice and Equality, Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Public Expenditure and Reform-, and they are examining ways of doing this. It does not come without a cost. It will cost about €78 million, so that is not to be glossed over, but it is something that I would support, along with my colleagues who have spoken on it.

Last Monday, we were having our first sitting and it was also the first day of businesses starting to reopen. I was delighted to avail of the opportunity to eat in a restaurant in my own town of Newbridge with friends. It was a very pleasant experience and everybody there obeyed the Covid regulations to the letter of the law. It is important that we all do that. While we are talking about businesses reopening, we have to look forward in seven weeks to schools reopening and that is an issue of major importance for every one of us here and all the people we represent.While our students are now officially on school holidays, it is five months since they have been in their classrooms with their teachers. It has been a difficult five months for everybody involved in the process - for teachers and for parents but, most important, for the students and, in particular, for those students who have been in vulnerable situations domestically and for those who have special needs. We have had students without routine and without structure and everything must be done to ensure our schools reopen in late August or early September. The Minister has a difficult job in this regard. After all, she will be dealing with almost 3,500 primary schools and almost 800 secondary schools. There is a job of work that must be done, and it has to be priority. We need to have boards of management conduct physical audits in every one of the schools to help support the principals, teachers and students as they come back to school. While I welcome the ongoing engagement with the unions, we are not hearing enough of the students' voice or of the parents' voice which are imperative in this regard. There is a particular group of students who call themselves the incoming sixth years. They have set up their own group. It is inspirational to see young people so passionate and so enthused about gong back to school. They really want to have their voice heard and we have to hear their voice as well.

During the past five months, we heard much about issues relating to lack of broadband and not having the same access to e-learning. Certainly that is something we need to address. However, it is fair to say there was an inconsistency of approach among schools and teachers. By far, the vast majority of schools and teachers were excellent. However, I have been engaging with parents and teachers throughout Kildare and there was an inconsistency there. Not everybody stepped up to the mark. I understand the Department advice was not pertinent and was quite sparse. We needed more direction from the Department. Having said that, many lessons have been learned. We need to collate all those lessons and make sure, if a situation like this comes down the line ever again, that we have that.

It is incredibly important that the Minister, Deputy Foley, comes into the Seanad. I ask the Leader to help organise that because, as I said, this has to be a priority for society. Our children need structure and socialisation. They need to have subjects taught in the appropriate manner and within a classroom.

The last point I will make is that I was dismayed when I saw an article from the ESRI in one of the Sunday newspapers a few weeks ago basically stating that students who are in examination years should give up non-examination subjects. That is concerning because we want our young people to be resilient. We want them to learn skills that they can transfer right across their lives and to put a narrow focus on examination subjects would be the wrong step to take. It also made the point that there should not be mock examinations and that all the time in the classroom should be geared towards the leaving certificate and the junior certificate, which I also think is wrong. If we learned anything from what we have gone through in relation to schools it is that it is important to have consistent testing and examinations throughout the years. I would like to have the opportunity to engage with the Minister on that as, I am sure, many others would.