Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 8, after line 37, to insert the following:

“(6) The payments for health supports shall be subject to a review on an annual basis as the Bill currently provides for payment of €3,000 to a former resident.”.

I pursued all of this debate when we discussed amendment No. 15, which I am sure the Minister noticed, and I will not repeat myself.

Our next amendment is No. 19 and I take on board what the Minister said. She might accept this one. She said that she likes to take on board some amendments and support them. To date, she has accepted none, but maybe I will be pleased by her response to this amendment. Again, this a very reasonable amendment. All we ask is that "the payments for educational services shall be subject to a review on an annual basis.” If the amendment mentioned a sum of between €6,000 to €7,000 then it would have been ruled out of order on the ground of being a charge on the Exchequer.

I will take the opportunity to talk about the educational aspect, which I mentioned earlier. We know that an awful lot of people who went through institutional care had great difficulties with education. The Minister is now the Minister for education and she has a special interest in education. I welcome her education policy 2025 which she launched. I quickly scanned some of its summaries today and ask the Leader of the House to arrange a debate on this important policy. What I really liked about it was the re-introduction of therapy and therapeutic services to special schools, which is welcome. I genuinely think the document is really exciting and I am glad that it will be updated annually. I look forward to debating the policy in this House with the Minister very soon because it is critical to have early psychological intervention and assessment of all children at that stage. We are talking here about redress. There were a lot of minors and children in care. Through our excellent education system we pick up all of that sort of thing. We will have another opportunity on another day to discuss this and I say well done to the Minister on her policy.

Many people did not have the advantages of education. Many people right up to the late 1970s were basically ejected and kicked out of care at 16 or 17 years of age. There was no ambition. Many people did not even have parents. They had no-one who had a special interest in them. No one told them they were a special boy or special girl. No-one really gave a damn. No-one charted a course for the direction they might take nor tapped into their artistic, creative or academic potential. There was none of that there so people had to survive and they had to get out. People must understand that is the background for the majority though not all. Therefore, talk of degrees and all of this sort of thing is very admirable but I would rather talk about people who need assistance with the most basic things such as numeracy and literacy skills, and very basic IT skills because such provision is critically important.

The Minister of State, Deputy Marian Harkin, and the Minister, Deputy Lawless, issued a joint statement on major grant aid the other day. Again, the statement mentioned literacy supports and it was issued by the Government on gov.ie. It would be great if the Minister for Education and Youth talked about that. It know it is a sub-brief maybe. One of the things that emerged from the engagement was the issue of education because people gain confidence from education, supports and training. Literacy and numeracy skills and IT skills are also very important and I know the Minister provided for them but we need to be honest. I want the Minister to put it on the record of the House because people are looking in, and will be looking in over the next few days at the Oireachtas report, and if it is not in context then they do not quite really understand and miss the nuance of some of these things. All of these things are capped. To be honest, it is not a huge amount of money and the Government should keep the area under review. I simply ask the Minister to please tell me that she is committed to keeping this area under review.