School Curriculum
Dail Éireann — 2023-10-17
============================================================

John Lahart (FF), Dublin South-West

I welcome the reply. This is a very radical and dynamic innovation on the Minister’s part. It will be one of a number of things for which she will be remembered. It represents a shift in the funding mechanism of the Government, for example. I have long believed that every Department has a role to play in well-being and mental health so it is not only the Department of Health’s funding that goes towards these initiatives. Deputy Foley is, I think, the first Minister for Education to allocate a significant portion of funding from her Department to the health and mental well-being of children. I assume this funding will increase in the years ahead. That should be acknowledged.
Building resilience is a key part of the challenge our young children face, particularly because so much of their play is structured compared to previous times. I congratulate the Minister on the radical nature of the introduction of this process.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-10-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-10-17