Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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331. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider making cardiac pulmonary resuscitation a compulsory subject in secondary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5694/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum, which is currently mandatory for primary and Junior Cycle students, is focused on promoting the health and well-being of children. Teachers can include CPR/first-aid in their SPHE programme. Personal safety is currently addressed in a variety of ways in the primary and post primary curricula; for example, SPHE aims to develop student’s skills for keeping safe and to make students aware of appropriate responses to various threats to personal safety. This provides schools with opportunities to prioritise first aid and/or cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if they consider this appropriate for their students.

At Junior Cycle, the curriculum is made up of a combination of full subjects and short courses. Short courses are designed for 100 hours of engagement over the three years of Junior Cycle. Some short courses will be designed centrally by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and others by schools themselves or other bodies, using the template provided by the NCCA. It is open to a school or other body to develop a short course in first aid training, for use in schools.

There are also opportunities within Transition Year in which a flexible menu of learning modules can be provided by schools within the context of a framework for the programme set out by the Department.

Schools are encouraged to engage with community groups and a wide range of stakeholders to provide for extra-curricular learning opportunities such as first-aid training and/or CPR or to give talks to students.