I want to speak to the issue of the extension of access to the junior certificate school programme, JCSP, digital libraries to all schools, particularly DEIS schools. Notwithstanding a proud literary tradition and as a son of a county that gave us Maria Edgeworth, Goldsmith, Padraic Colum and, more recently, John Connell and Belinda McKeon, it is regrettable that our schools network is strangled with an underresourced and restricted library service. Ironically, we often criticise our near neighbour's delivery of education, but the UK has a long-established tradition of professionally staffed school libraries. Ireland, unfortunately, does not have a national policy or funding model for school libraries, instead relying mainly on the goodwill of teachers and effectively stealing from budgets to finance their library service.

I understand that the Department funds just 30% or 40% of 730 post-primary school libraries nationally. Known as the JCSP, these funded school libraries serve schools in disadvantaged areas. The JCSP libraries are models of best practice but every school in the country should have a library and service of that quality. There is a need to ensure, at a minimum, that all DEIS schools can access this and, in time, that all secondary schools can access it.

Many European countries have enshrined school libraries in law, such as France and the Netherlands, but unfortunately there is no such safeguard here in Ireland. The current situation has been highlighted to me by Laura McEnroe, the special educational needs co-ordinator in Meán Scoil Mhuire in Longford. Ironically, it is the alma mater of one of the aforementioned authors, Belinda McKeon. The school was recently approved for DEIS status. This was a significant intervention, given the level of social and economic disadvantage in the county town. Access to the digital e-book and audiobook lending library would be an invaluable resource for students at this and other secondary schools. However, Ms McEnroe was recently told that the Department of Education had refused to extend access to this resource to schools which join DEIS after 2022. This seems most unfair and is certainly contrary to the spirit and ethos that underpins the DEIS programme. The JCSP is not available to Meán Scoil Mhuire either.

Access to the JCSP programme would make the curriculum accessible and relevant to young students who need more individualised programmes to meet their education needs. Many students in junior cycle would benefit greatly from this programme. Unfortunately, however, this and many other schools simply cannot access it at the moment. It is critical that all schools and, as a matter of urgency, DEIS supported schools, have access to the digital e-book and audiobook lending library and the JCSP programme.

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue of the extension of access to the junior certificate school programme digital libraries to those schools that joined DEIS after 2022.

The junior certificate school programme is a national programme sponsored by the Department of Education and National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA. Introduced in 1996, it is a social inclusion programme that is aimed at students who are identified as being at risk of being socially or academically isolated or at risk of early school leaving before the then junior certificate has been achieved.

One of the initiatives under the JCSP is the JCSP demonstration library project. School librarians work as part of a network of librarians in the JCSP demonstration library project. Within the demonstration library project, there are 32 professional librarians employed by the City of Dublin Education and Training Board, CDETB, based in 30 schools that operate the library facility. They are managed by a senior librarian. Together with key school staff, librarians are responsible for drawing up and implementing library strategies to tackle the literacy difficulties experienced by many JCSP students. Each year, each library receives a grant from JCSP. The grant funds literacy and numeracy initiatives, book buying and resources for the library. Expenditure is approved in advance by the senior librarian.

The JCSP digital library is a centrally managed online e-book and audiobook lending library that is free for students and staff in all JCSP or DEIS schools. The collection consists of a wide range of teenage and young adult titles to suit all year groups, interests and ability levels. In addition, the library hosts collections of titles to support teacher professional learning and staff-parent book clubs. The collection currently consists of 10,500 unique titles, with multiple copies or class sets or both of many of these, bringing the overall total to more than 45,000 items. More than 600 titles are available for simultaneous use, meaning they are always available to borrow without wait lists or holds. New titles are being added to the collections on an ongoing basis. To date, more than 100,000 individual students and 9,000 staff from more than 220 schools have been set up with library membership. Borrowing levels are increasing year on year, with over 84,700 items borrowed from the library from 2021 to 2022, which is a 47% increase on the previous year.

In 2023, the JCSP programme received total funding of €3.6 million from the Department of Education. An amount of €2.1 million was with regard to salaries of the network of librarians in the JCSP programme and €1.5 million was provided for programme costs.

As part of the implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle 2015, it was agreed to carry out a review of the JCSP and consider the extent to which the needs of students undertaking the JCSP are met through the junior cycle. The work of a review group established to progress this was paused as a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and is now recommencing.

Library space is provided as standard as part of all new primary and post-primary school buildings and as part of some school extension projects. The standard provision at primary school is a combined library and resource space of 66 sq. m. For schools of 32 classrooms and more, two such spaces are provided. At post-primary level, a single library space is provided where the size is determined in proportion to the planned number of pupils at the school.

I thank the Minister of State very much. It is safe to say there was nothing in that reply that will send me home with the wind in my sails this evening.

Notwithstanding that, I note there are probably young secondary school teachers who will tell me they were in junior cycle when it was agreed to carry out a review of the JCSP as part of the implementation of the framework for junior cycle back in 2015. I appreciate that work was paused as a consequence of Covid-19 but at least it is good to hear that it has now been resumed.

I will draw the Minister of State's attention but more specifically, the attention of the Department officials who are hopefully listening, to a letter that appeared in the Irish Examiner newspaper recently from Ms Andrea Dillon, secretary of the school libraries group of the Library Association of Ireland, and Ms Kathleen Moran, senior librarian and JCSP library project chair. They stated that they wanted to:

reiterate our realistic and concrete demand; the minister [for education] must, at long last, fulfil the department’s 2005 commitment to extend the Junior Certificate School Programme Demonstration Library Project to all Deis schools. Recent joint Oireachtas committee reports have identified this as "an urgent national priority". The groundbreaking benefits that school libraries confer upon students from deprived backgrounds are available in only 30 out of 235 Deis schools.

It is fair to say that based on that, it is fairly damning. We are failing our pupils in many of our most disadvantaged and deprived communities right across Ireland. We have a proud literary tradition in this country. As we try to counter the influence of online material and smartphones, at the very minimum we need to be giving schools access to a school library and books for pupils. I think the House would agree that in the region of €3 million per annum to fund this service nationally is derisory and needs to be rapidly improved.

I thank the Deputy again for raising this important matter. The junior certificate school programme aims to provide a curriculum framework that assists schools and teachers in making the junior cycle more accessible to those young people who may leave school without formal qualifications. It attempts to help young people experience success and develop a positive self-image by providing a curriculum and assessment framework suitable to their needs.

Since its introduction in 1996, the JCSP expanded from 32 schools to the current 221. As part of the implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle 2015, it was agreed to carry out a review of the JCSP and consider to what extent the needs of the students who are taking the JCSP are met through the junior cycle. As I stated, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted this, but that work is now recommencing. The Department of Education provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools in delivering the equality of opportunity in schools DEIS programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sectors. In March 2022, the Minister, Deputy Foley, announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 38 post-primary schools and the programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 260,000 students. One in four students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme. This expansion added an additional €32 million to the Department of Education's expenditure on the DEIS programme for 2023, bringing the overall Department allocation for the programme to more than €180 million.

On 22 May, the 40 or so staff of the Newpark Academy of Music, in which there are approximately 600 students, were informed in a shock and unexpected notification that the school was to close. Those staff will lose their jobs and those 600 music students will no longer have a school. The Newpark Academy of Music has been operating for 45 years serving the community and doing outreach programmes. It is located on the Newpark Comprehensive School grounds. It serves the school community, but also people beyond the school community. It is a registered not-for-profit charity. The Minister of State can simply imagine the shock for students, their families and the staff over losing their jobs and their school. Shockingly, they were told this was going to happen at a week's notice. They were told on 22 May that the school and their jobs would be gone on 29 May. This is an absolutely unbelievable and inexplicable decision made by the board.

The only explanation that has been given is something to do with trading and financial conditions, although there is no indication that there is any financial difficulty with the school, or certainly no explanation to that effect has been given to anybody.

The fact that the workers have only been given one week's notice seems to be, without question, a breach of the employment Act because there is supposed to be a 30-day consultation period if more than ten workers are let go in a liquidation. One of the board members is the principal of Newpark school who, to date, has not engaged in any meaningful communication with the staff to give any explanation as to why any of this has happened.

I should say that a number of the staff and former pupils are in the Gallery. Possibly as a result of my raising the issue with the Taoiseach yesterday, when I flagged that this debate would be happening today, staff received a notification indicating there would be a meeting at 8 p.m. this evening, which is the same time as the end-of-year concert. That is quite extraordinary. You would have to think games of a not-nice kind are being played with a shocked and devastated staff.

I am asking, as I asked the Taoiseach yesterday, for urgent intervention from the Government. I remind the Government that it has a very explicit commitment to providing access to music, art and culture in the education system, in schools and for young people. I do not have time to quote the programme for Government extensively, but it refers to expanding "Creative Schools, ensuring that every child in Ireland has access to tuition ... in art, music, drama" and ensuring "that it continues beyond the life of Creative Ireland and will work with the Department of Education to achieve this", etc. The Departments of Education, arts and enterprise, and possibly the Department of local government, all have a stake in this. I am asking for an urgent cross-departmental intervention to find out what is going on and to stop this closure. We are supposed to be expanding access to the arts, music and so on for young people in education. The idea that this closure would go ahead, these people would lose their jobs and the 600 students would lose their music school is unacceptable. I am asking for urgent Government intervention on this.

The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, sends her apologies as she cannot be here. I will give the response on the Minister's behalf. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the current position and understanding regarding the recently announced closure of Newpark Academy of Music.

Newpark Academy of Music is a private academy located in Melfield House, a 200-year-old building on the grounds of Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, County Dublin. The building has hosted the academy since 1979. While the academy uses the building on this property, which is in the ownership of the Minister for Education, the academy itself does not fall under the remit of her Department.

The Department of Education was recently made aware of the decision by the board of the academy to cease operations. The Department's understanding is that this decision was made based on operational and financial concerns on the part of the academy. The Department was not involved in the decision to close Newpark music school. It is a stated policy of the Department of Education to encourage and support the use of school facilities for wider community and recreational uses, where appropriate. It should be underlined, however, that the primary role of the Department of Education is to cater for and deliver primary and post-primary educational needs in any locality. It is important to recognise the distinction in relation to the privately owned academy.

I have to be honest. That is a shocking response. It is a case of "Pass the buck; it has nothing to do with us."

It is a pity the senior Minister is not here. As I said, this is also about arts and culture and the commitment of the Government to ensure access for young people to those things. The Minister said the school is a private entity. It is a not-for-profit registered charity that has the principal of the school on its board. This is, therefore, a community service for students and young people to access music.

I ask the Minister of State to think, for a moment, what the world would be like without music. I am sure he enjoys music. It makes the world a better place. How does he think music gets produced? It is because somebody teaches people how to play musical instruments and learn about music. We need more access to it and the Government has committed to give access to all young people and students in a collaboration between the Department of arts, the Department of Education and local authorities. All of this is mentioned in the programme for Government.

The programme for Government states that the Government will "Foster further collaboration between local authorities and local arts organisations through Creative Communities" and work with the Department of Education to expand access to the arts. A school closes, with 40 people, some of whom have been working there for decades, losing their jobs with a week's notice, and the Minister of State says it has nothing to do with the Government. Seriously, the Minister of State should have a bit of respect for people who are shocked and upset that they have lost their jobs. He should show some commitment to the arts, young people, music, the community that will be hit by this and the programme for Government.

I appeal to the Minister of State not to give me a tick-box, "it has nothing to do with us" response. I ask for an intervention for the community, the students and the workers who are being treated inexplicably and to look beneath the bonnet of this because there is no reason to believe there is any major financial difficulty with the school. It was self-financing.

I ask the Minister of State to do better than that. If he does not know the answers, will he bring the matter upstairs to the Ministers for arts, Education and the local government? The workers' rights issues involved also bring in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

I fully understand and appreciate the concern raised in relation to the decision to close Newpark Academy of Music. No disrespect was shown. I was simply setting out the factual position that the academy does not come under the Department of Education's remit. I have no doubt the decision has been devastating for all of those involved. That said, the role of the Department of Education is to support, fund and deliver primary and post-primary education in the State. In addition, the decision to close the academy was not made by the Department. I will bring the Deputy's comments to the attention of the senior Minister.