Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 417: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will work closely with the Health Service Executive in granting first aid classes to all senior students in primary schools and to all students in second level in order to create a safer and healthier society. [40099/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has no plans to provide classes in first aid for students in primary or post-primary schools. Personal safety is addressed in a variety of ways in the primary and post-primary curricula. Social, personal and health education, SPHE, which is compulsory for all students up to the end of junior cycle, aims to develop students' skills for keeping safe and to make students aware of appropriate responses to various treats to personal safety. This provides schools with opportunities to prioritise first aid if they consider this to meet the needs of their students.

The Health Service Executive collaborates with the Department and the Department of Health and Children in supporting the delivery of SPHE in schools. In other subjects such as home economics, the sciences, the technologies and physical education students learn how to protect themselves from harm and how to treat minor injuries.

Many schools offer modules on first aid to transition year students. These may be delivered by organisations such as the Red Cross, the Order of Malta or St. John's Ambulance, or by teachers who are qualified in first aid.