Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1191. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total funding allocated for improving safety in school science; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43032/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Board of Management of a school or Education and Training Board (ETB) is responsible, as employer, for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of its employees and of those directly affected by the work activities of the school. This includes the instruction of science subjects.

Monitoring compliance with best practice safety protocols is part of the ongoing management of a school and the costs associated with ensuring safety in school settings relate to the staff time involved in that regard.

My Department has committed, as part of the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Implementation Support Measures package, to ensure that appropriate supports for the enactment of revised Leaving Certificate specifications are available, and to work to identify potential acute needs in respect of laboratory facilities. As part of these support measures, I have committed to extending the scope of the Physics and Chemistry subject grant to also cover Biology and Agricultural Science. The amount of grant will be increased to €25 per student per qualifying subject, effectively doubling the current rate. This will represent approximately €3m in subject grant funding in addition to the €12m funding which issued to schools in December 2024 under the Science Implementation Support Grant.

The upgrade of laboratory facilities is a dedicated and specific works category within my Department’s summer works scheme. This enables individual post-primary schools to prioritise the refurbishment of their science laboratory facilities as their project for delivery under this multi-annual scheme. Applications for the scheme closed on 30th June 2025. The first tranche of projects to be approved under this multi-annual scheme are due to be notified to schools in Q4 2025.

Schools are supported in safe science practice through a number of documents and resources. My Department has produced the documents 'Safety in School Science' and 'Safety in the School Laboratory', which set out the key principles of safety in a science laboratory. Additional resources, developed in collaboration with the Health & Safety Authority (HSA) are available on the HSA website and include recent guidance on the safe use and management of chemicals in schools.

Oide, the support service for teachers, also provides support and training for teachers on safe science practice in schools. Most recently, in March 2025, Oide provided the webinar “An Introduction to Laboratory Safety in Schools,” aimed at post-primary teachers. The recorded webinar is available for teachers to access on Oide’s website.