Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate and welcome the Minister. The biggest challenge is the one on which she embarked yesterday and she has made a great start. Could the Minister address the issues raised by Mr. John McGowan of the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, today? It was disturbing to hear him talk about staggered opening. I ask the Minister to try to minimise that.

It is great to hear that we will have another 1,000 teachers at post-primary level. I would ask the Minister to comment on the question of supply in her response. Any primary level teacher who gets any teaching time at all should be able to count it towards his or her qualification as part of the Droichead framework. That is a big issue for some people. I ask that we use the extra teachers to permanently reduce the pupil-teacher ratio.

I would like to raise something that is a little bit outside the Minister's remit but is very relevant. I ask her to ensure that the school meals programme is expanded and very widely used. It is also important that online bullying is dealt with. Work on school halls has been halted for a long time. I am thinking specifically of St. Aidan's comprehensive school in Cootehill. The Minister should visit it to see a glaring example of the need for a new school hall. There are very compelling reasons for this.

Looking to the long term, I would ask the Minister to look at the readiness for distance learning, which will be necessary in any future pandemics. In that context, the broadband plan is vital. We have evidence from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, that work needs to be done there.

I am glad to hear about the weekly day for teaching principals, enhanced supervision, aid for school readiness and the extra capital funding to help schools to prepare. I welcome the plan. I think it is good. I would love for the Minister to respond to me specifically on St. Aidan's comprehensive school in Cootehill.