Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I identify with the words around Tara Mines, without necessarily repeating all the arguments. I express my heartfelt sympathy to the workers. I am delighted that my colleagues, Deputy English, and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, are on the case and actively trying to deal with it. The matter was well discussed by a number of colleagues. I will leave it at that but it is a very important issue. It affects my locality as, strangely enough, quite a number of people commute from the area where I live to work in Tara Mines.

It is very appropriate that I raise the following matter, as the Acting Leader, Senator O'Loughlin, is a distinguished former member of the INTO and I am a former chair in that organisation. Senator O'Sullivan, also a former INTO man, raised the question of promotions but I will focus on two other issues the INTO representatives put to me this morning. One is the need to further reduce class size. We have done well in doing so over the past three years. It should happen again because the complexity of society now, including the multiracial dimension and all the challenges of contemporary society, make it necessary to have smaller classes. We are not at OECD level.

I will finish on the very important question of psychological services for pupils.So many children now, including the Ukrainian children here, for a complex myriad of reasons, need psychological support and €20 per pupil would do it. It would cost €3.7 million this year, or €11 million for a full year. The INTO is a wonderful organisation and I believe it does a lot. I ask that the Acting Leader would convey those points to the Minister. I also ask for a debate on primary education in this Chamber soon. It is a very relevant area. It is a formative stage for our young people.