Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He is absolutely on the ball. Senator Davitt spoke about the impact of Tara Mines on Westmeath.

Senator Paddy Burke expressed his sympathies on the death of former colleague, Paul Coghlan. I would like to be associated with that, as I know everybody else in the House would be. He spoke about the disability grants report. It is a priority that we have a debate on that.

Senator Craughwell spoke about the independent review group. Under a freedom of information request, correspondence between the then chief of staff and the Department of Defence was released. He referred to the unfortunate situation whereby the independent monitoring group was disbanded and became an independent review group. We take note of his comments.

Senator Ned O'Sullivan spoke about the briefing with the INTO. I have not yet attended, but I hope to do so after the Order of Business. He is correct about the middle management situation. Schools are dealing with more than they have ever dealt with. I take my hat off to teachers, principals and all of those involved in the school community. They are doing an incredible job in all of our communities and they need to have middle management restored. The Minister for Education has gone quite a distance in terms of starting to restore middle management, we need it fully restored. We will bring that message back to her very strongly.

Senator O'Reilly spoke about Tara Mines and the INTO, and the need for a further reduction in class sizes. She is correct. It is important to point out that we have the lowest ever pupil-teacher ratio right now. Since the Minister for Education took up office the number has decreased by one every year. We hope to continue that progress. We need to acknowledge the schoolbook scheme that has been introduced and will be in place in September for primary schools means parents will not have to pay for books. It is important to acknowledge the many positive development that the Minister has put in place for education, in terms of a reduction in class sizes and supporting those who are vulnerable and have extra needs, as the Senator pointed out.

Senator Boyhan also raised disability matters and the INTO, and supported them.

Senator Boylan spoke about the EPA report, which I have not seen. She said there has been no significant improvement in water quality. It is regrettable because it is hugely important. She is correct that farmers feel demonised; they do. I was on the farm of Stephen Byrne in Monasterevin, County Kildare, recently. He showed me the measures he has put in place to improve water quality. Farmers understand the situation and know what they need to do. They are doing the work but they not getting the results quickly enough. The Senator asked for a debate on just transition and to counteract the negative stories were hearing about agriculture. The majority of our farmers are taking very positive steps in terms of climate action. We will look for a debate on that.

Senator Keoghan raised the issue of Tara Mines. As I said, we will certainly look for a briefing. It is urgent. If we do not have one today, we need to have one tomorrow. We will contact the two Ministers straightaway.

Senator Fitzpatrick is right. We all talk about the leaving certificate before it starts. It is important to acknowledge that students have reached the halfway mark. We have typical exam weather. Everybody is with the students. I saw quite a bit of coverage of the fallout regarding the maths paper. I have no doubt that will be taken into consideration in marking because most often that is the case. In terms of the direction she feels the Minister should take on the State exams board, I agree that we want young people to flourish and to be given the opportunity to show what they know and have learned, assimilated and understand, rather than rote learning. To be fair, in general we are starting to see a move from being able to assimilate and rote learning.

I welcome the young people and older people that are here. It is lovely to see you all and we hope you enjoy the day.