Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is very welcome. It is great to have the opportunity to say a few words about this really important subject. I am very proud of the record of my party, Fianna Fáil, on education. It is fair to say we are the party of education and, throughout our history, we have established an unmatched record of commitment to education because it is a great leveller and a great enabler. Indeed, it is the bedrock of Ireland's continued social and economic progress.

In terms of all of the significant developments and expansions in Irish education, Fianna Fáil has been at the forefront, from the establishment of free secondary schooling and the creation of special education supports to broadening access to university education and, most recently, the free schoolbooks scheme. We have one of the strongest education systems in the world and that is evidenced by our high ranking in all different forms of student achievement. This has been confirmed by the OECD and the EU.

Two of my colleagues have mentioned that Ireland is way down the list of expenditure on education but I beg to differ. Ireland actually spends 12.6% of all Government expenditure on education. That is far more than most nations. The average spend across OECD countries is 10.7% and, in the EU member states, it is 9.5%. Of course, expenditure is not everything. It is the outcomes that are really important for that and, in relation to outcomes, Ireland does very well.

There are a few extra points I would like to make. There is a very ambitious programme for Government in relation to education and I certainly welcome the commitments made there, especially on special education, the review of the DEIS scheme and investment. It is very important we also look at transversal education and the bridge between formal education, non-formal and informal. I learned quite a lot about that many years ago from Peter Hussey, who established a youth theatre called Crooked House in Newbridge. Through that and through working with young people dealing with all of the different things that are happening in society that impact on them and how to help them navigate all of the challenges and issues through drama and improvisation certainly empowered the young people I got to know through that. In fact, only two weeks ago the Sunday Independent had a really good article by Gabriel Byrne addressing this. He spoke about working with Leish Burke and Griese Youth Theatre, who I actually had in the audiovisual room approximately four weeks ago to talk about young people, how they interpreted climate change and what we needed to do. The work being done to help young people express their feelings and their emotions and work through these issues is certainly very important and I would like to see the Department of education doing more in this area.

It is particularly important that we support the whole school community. While supporting teachers and the excellent teachers we have is vital, we are aware of the issue at the moment with school secretaries and caretakers. They have balloted for a strike, starting 28 August. I ask the Minister of State to work with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to ensure that does not happen, and I have no doubt he will. We need to support the whole school community. That is what makes a school strong.

This is something I have written to the Minister for education about and I will give an example here of supporting schools. St. Brigid's primary school in Kildare has 1,020 students, yet it only has one administrative principal and one deputy administrative principal because there is no provision after 573 pupils. However, once they hit 900 students in secondary schools, they have three administrative deputy principals. In terms of the workload principals and staff have, I would really like to see that being addressed. Another issue I would like to see progress on is the parent-student school charter. That was passed in the Seanad in 2019. There was pre-legislative scrutiny in the education committee at that point but that has never progressed in the Dáil. I see that as something that is very important for the whole-school community and it gives students and parents buy-in to decisions that are made and an ability to address grievance procedures collectively and not in a defensive way.

There is much I could say but supporting the extra capitation grants is really important because schools are finding it difficult to subsist at the moment. I ask the Minister of State to keep up his own excellent work on special education. There are so many relying on him to do that and I know he will deliver.