Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to express my sympathies to Senator Buttimer on the passing of his father. I have not had the opportunity to do so since his dad died and I just want to say that we are thinking of him at this difficult time.

I rise today to draw the attention of the House to a study carried out by the University of Limerick. The study, which was actually carried out across 21 countries in Europe, looked at young carers aged between 11 and 18 and found that they are more likely to suffer from depression because they are carers. The study is really frightening.The University of Limerick has been very involved in it. The study found that people with more social interaction were less inclined to be as depressed as people who were at home constantly caring for people or otherwise very much involved and did not have other social interaction. It is an interesting study which was supported by Family Carers Ireland. I commend carers on the role they play. Young carers and carers generally help to keep people at home and living longer. I pay tribute to them.

Senator Currie raised an issue with schools. We have a case in which 12 students in Limerick do not have a place in secondary school. They have not received an offer of a school place. All the offers closed approximately one week ago and they still have no school places. It is an absolute disgrace that 12 children have not been offered a school place. We have a common application system where people fill out 11 schools, but 12 children were not offered a single place in Limerick this year.

It is awful for the children and their families because it is a worry and also makes the children wonder why their friend got offered a school place when they did not. I call for intervention from the Minister for Education and the Department. The families are referred to Tusla which has no role to play in this regard. They get an appointment with Tusla but the person in Tusla has no part to play in this. The system needs to be changed. I call on the Leader to intervene with the Minister for Education on this matter.