Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join in welcoming the ambassador of Luxembourg. If she is around next Easter, I will be delighted to sell her some of those knitted chickens with eggs in support of the apostolic works of the Elphin diocese and the wonderful humanitarian work being done by various missionaries from our parishes abroad. I did not hear whether it is a Fabergé egg she is distributing, but if she has any spare, I am always ready to receive and then declare in accordance with the rules.

All joking aside, nobody quite knows when the next general election is going to take place but of course we know there will be a budget. It will be an important pre-election budget. Many of us attended a comprehensive briefing by the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, in recent days. I thank Eoin Fenton from Killimor National School in County Galway and, indeed, the president of the INTO, Carmel Browne, and its general secretary, John Boyle. Their asks are reasonable. They rightly highlight the importance of primary school education and the need to invest in it and the continuing inequities. Their asks come down to three issues. They want us to invest in smaller classes. They point out that if we could bring down the class size by an average of two or so per class, we would get to the EU average of 20. That reduction of two would align us closely with our European neighbours. That would be timely when we consider that the projections for school enrolments suggest a decrease in primary school enrolments over the next few years. It would, therefore, be a very manageable cost and investment. They also point out quite rightly the need to strengthen school leadership. It is good that 500 assistant principal positions were restored in the 2024 budget but a significant shortfall remains of about 1,700 middle management roles yet to be reinstated to bring schools to the level that they were at 15 years ago. We have to remember the role that middle management leadership plays in our primary schools, indeed in all schools. It ranges from enhancing teaching and learning to supporting pupil well-being, literacy, numeracy, digital STEM initiatives, the Cineáltas action plan on bullying and so on. We must also remember that when we want to encourage people into school leadership, it is vital they get the experience that middle management positions offer. The issue of career progression is so important. The third issue the INTO has been pressing is the need for a 20% increase in the two core grants paid annually to primary and special schools, the capitation and minor works grants and the higher ancillary services grant. It points out that there is still a pronounced discrepancy of €145 per student in the capitation grant between primary school pupils in comparison with post-primary school students.

All those important concerns were echoed at another briefing from school principals we met yesterday, led by Ms Angela Dunne of Loughmore National School in Tipperary. They stressed the importance of extra administration time for teaching principals and also the chronic under-resourcing of special education needs supports and provision. We often talk about this in the House and it needs to be addressed, considering the number of children with special needs in primary schools increased by 56% between 2017 and 2021. This is a very important issue that needs to be addressed on a continuing basis in the budget. I thank the education professionals for briefing us on their needs.