Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming again to the House. She has been in and out regularly and we all appreciate her taking the time to be lambasted by questions about what has obviously been a challenging and difficult time for her. We accept that she has an enormous amount on her plate. She has dealt with reopening schools and had a lot of inherited messes to deal with. I do not think any of us would wish that on any Minister, particularly not a first-time Minister. I must commend her tenacity at what has obviously been an extremely difficult time.

When the Minister was previously before the House, I highlighted things that she will have to deal with in the coming period of her term in office. She will obviously have to address the fact that class sizes are too large in both primary and secondary schools. A teaching union is balloting for industrial action because of the nature of what is going on in second level schools. There is also the issue of pay inequality which I hope will be dealt with during the Minister's term in office.

As has already been mentioned, we must provide proper pay and conditions for school secretaries who have now balloted on the matter. The Labour Party will be supporting them in their campaign. The Department will also have to deal with special needs assistants in a respectful manner and vindicate the rights of children with special educational needs to get a school place. There is a huge number of issues on the Minister's agenda, all of which I have previously referenced.

The Minister mentioned that appeals will be available next week. Does she have an indication if that will be at the beginning or the end of the week? A number of students have been anxiously contacting me, looking for any kind of light at the end of this tunnel. We talk about the leaving certificate as a metaphorical tunnel and I hope we are coming to the end of it.

I very much welcome that the Minister extended the deadline for the application to sit the leaving certificate examinations in November but it would have been beneficial if the students could have got their appeal results before the deadline so they could have made a decision about what they wanted to do. That said, I understand that the timing of the leaving certificate has put the Minister and her Department under enormous pressure.

There has been mention of this year's leaving certificate examinations, which will not be like any other examinations. I reiterate the question about standardisation. It will affect a small cohort of students, approximately 2,800. How will the process work? There is standardisation in a normal leaving certificate year but will it apply in the same way? How will that work?

I also want to ask about guidance teachers, resourcing and mental health supports. Will the Minister outline if there are any plans to provide additional guidance or mental health supports? There is great sympathy across the country for this year's leaving certificate students but there has also been a bit of maligning and dismissing of them. I was on a radio programme last week and there were some appalling comments coming in telling students to get over it, deal with it and all this kind of stuff. It was disheartening to hear members of the public being dismissive of a group of students for whom we all have enormous sympathy. Does the Minister have any plans for additional guidance, resourcing or mental health measures? I am thinking of students who are at home, trying their best, and perhaps do not have the compassion or care that they need.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health yesterday, I referenced some of the groups who traditionally struggle anyway. I am thinking particularly of migrants and the difficulties they may be facing in the coming year, LGBT students who perhaps are not out to their families and are going to face additional stresses at home, or indeed are out to their families and do not have the supports that they need. I am thinking also of students who are in situations in which they face domestic violence or difficult home environments and those who are coming from direct provision and have already been isolated during lockdown. Traveller students may also struggle. Today is the first National Traveller Mental Health Day and I hope everyone takes note of that. Those are some of the groups of students about whom I am concerned. Will the Minister give an outline of any additional plans for mental health supports or guidance?

Looking forward to the leaving certificate examinations of 2021, can the Minister provide comfort or assurances to the students who will be affected that next year's system will be fair and we will not face the problems that we had this year? I know that this is a bit like asking the Minister to predict the future. I am not asking her to be Mystic Meg or anything like that but are there plans in place if there are going to be school closures? We do not know what is going to happen. Can the Minister off a bit of comfort to those students that the Department has this in hand? I have no doubt that the Department does, but what plans are there to try to get the leaving certificate class of 2021 through?

I know that the Department is running a helpline but are there plans for any more targeted supports? That comes back to the question I asked about the mental health of leaving certificate students.

As a former officer with the Union of Students in Ireland, I echo the statements made by Senator Warfield about consent and sexual education. It is important that we have equal, inclusive and appropriate RSE. I am certainly happy to talk to the Minister about my experience in the students' union and the impact that the lack of RSE at second level is having on students in third level.

I see that my time is ticking away. Those are all of the questions I have. I know that the Minister is a compassionate and capable politician. Her compassion for leaving certificate students has shone through over the past couple of weeks and she has provided comfort for them. I am optimistic about the changes she is going to make to the education system over the coming period. Those are some of the questions I have and they have all come from constituents or people who have contacted me.