Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators who tabled the motion, which allows us to discuss the issue of young people and the challenges they face. We know that we are in uncertain times, that there is a lot of anxiety and that the past two years, when we had to deal with Covid and the lockdowns, have been harrowing. This has impacted all age groups but particularly young people. As a spokesperson for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, I am very aware of that. I am a member of the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health, as is Senator Black, who chairs it, and we have heard from so many groups that tell us of the day-to-day challenges.

I represent east Galway and Roscommon. I come from Ballinasloe, which is an area that has its own challenges, especially around the Pobal deprivation index. We have a delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, band 1-level school in Ballinasloe. I am very proud that we are seeing investment in DEIS supports. These are supports for schools to get access to DEIS-level supports. That is now one in four schools throughout Ireland. More than 1,000 schools are getting access to those supports.

We have also seen an increase in special education teachers. An extra number of places have been introduced under the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Madigan, and the previous Fine Gael-led Government. This Government has had a focus on special education. It is very clear that there has been a major focus on children from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and her Department with an increase in child benefit. For primary school level, we want to see that we are maintaining teachers in our schools in rural areas, which is about reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. We are looking at reducing that again by one point.

On students, last week we passed phenomenal, landmark legislation, namely, the Higher Education Authority Bill 2022. This will provide for the funding agency for third level. This Government has created a brand new Department for further and higher education. The Government has focused on and prioritised students. We are seeing an increase in respect of SUSI grants and the student assistance fund. This fund is to allow students in difficult situations to access this fund through student unions. PhD students, through Science Foundation Ireland and Irish Research Council programmes, are also seeing an increase of more than €500.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, spoke last week about accommodation, as my colleague, Senator Cummins, mentioned. We need to see that technological universities have the wherewithal to purchase, create, design and develop accommodation for students. In the short term, the rent-a-room scheme has been promoted by all universities in cities and towns throughout Ireland. The reason technological universities are so crucial for young people is that we now have university campuses in towns across Ireland and not just in our cities. We are now seeing them in towns across the west. The Atlantic Technological University and the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone have been crucial in developing third level excellence in areas outside our main city centres and urban areas. We want to encourage families living in those areas to participate in rent-a-room schemes. They will be people who potentially were students who have gone through the system.

I again thank the Senators who have tabled this motion because it is very important to highlight that while we see these benefits coming through the budget, that does not underestimate in any shape or form the mental health challenges that are out there. We see high levels of addiction in some of our towns. We are seeing that happen and we need to have those supports in place. Through the Department of Health, we are looking at the supports that have been put in place around disabilities and those networks, and around the community healthcare organisation, CHO, schemes throughout Ireland. We need to see our public health services working with communities on the ground. We need to see recruitment in place in our CHOs and, in particular, that people are recruited into those services at rural level. That can be very difficult when there are vacancies in some of those roles. In the area in which I live, we are looking for a psychologist post for our day hospital in Ballinasloe. That is crucial and it is needed. We need those posts to be in place. We need addiction services in place in rural areas and we need to see that as soon as possible.

I thank the young people who are with us here today. The voices that are being heard are crucial. The Minister, Deputy Harris, in implementing the legislation relating to the Higher Education Authority, made sure that student voices are included when it comes to boards of management for universities. It is also crucial that the students' union voice is included.