I move amendment No. 18: In page 17, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(n) to freely express its views on matters concerning the higher education sector,”.

I move amendment No. 19: In page 17, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(o) advise the Minister in relation to the adequacy of the level of public funding that is made available for higher education and to advise on future funding requirements,”.

I move amendment No. 24: In page 18, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “Direction and guidelines to be published 13. The Minister shall cause to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and to be published on the Minister’s website— (a) any direction issued under section 11 , and (b) any guidelines issued under section 12 .”.

I move amendment No. 33: In page 32, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “(c) the funding status of individual designated institutions of higher education,”.

I move amendment No. 34: In page 32, to delete lines 24 to 36, and in page 33, to delete lines 1 to 6 and substitute the following: “(5) The Minister shall, for the purpose of preparing a strategy, consult with— (a) representatives of students attending designated institutions of higher education, (b) designated institutions of higher education or their representative bodies, and (c) such other bodies or persons as the Minister considers appropriate.”. On Committee Stage, many of the amendments we and other tabled …

I move amendment No. 42: In page 35, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “(b) the funding status of individual designated institutions of higher education;” .

I move amendment No. 51: In page 38, line 19, after “section 139” to insert “or to adequately explain non-compliance in accordance with section 139 (7),”. Amendment No. 51 seeks to have "non-compliance" explained adequately. Any reference to "non-compliance" as dictated in the Bill needs to be explained comprehensively. This a reasonable suggestion. Amendment No. 67 would seek to insert "or the adequacy of any explanation for non-compliance provided pursuant to section 139(7)”. Amendment No. 96 is in a similar vein…

I move amendment No. 53: In page 38, line 21, after “requirements,” to insert “and”. The final part of this section, relating to conditions of funding, states, "to comply with such other conditions as may be determined by the Chief Executive Officer.". We want that removed. We do not see the need for the CEO to have such influence in this matter. That is why we want the word "and" inserted at the end of section 38(2)(f) and the word "and" removed from the end of (g).

I move amendment No. 54: In page 38, line 22, to delete “thereunder, and” and substitute “thereunder.”.

The Minister of State knows we already had a debate on many of these issues on Tuesday night. I will expand my comments to address some of the issues within the system. The Minister of State will know that not every school is the same. As has been mentioned, there are a cohort of students in some schools who are particularly vulnerable and needy. There may be intergenerational educational disadvantage and addiction issues, in addition to higher proportions of Traveller children, migrant children, children who have …

Should we thank Fianna Fáil for every tribunal we ever had?

The Labour Party welcomes this legislation, which is coming from the High Court ruling on court presenters. I am taken by the letter written by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to the Ceann Comhairle. She states that on a single day, 2 June, more than 2,131 cases were before the District Court throughout the country. Notwithstanding contingency measures put in place, hundreds of cases had to be adjourned. In one court alone, 130 cases had to be adjourned, which has caused significant distress and upset to victims and …

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for tabling the motion. It is important that we reflect on the life of a family with a child with autism, the news of a diagnosis, the challenge of it and getting used to it. They then have to deal with the system and the long waiting lists for assessment and interventions. It can take 36 months in some cases. I have been dealing with families who have been affected by this issue for approximately three years. Let us imagine if one had to deal with the challenge of this diagnosis, the new…

First, I am disappointed that this is the conversation we are having this afternoon. The Labour Party had asked that we discuss special education. Nobody in the Opposition asked for this debate. We will not have an opportunity for another two weeks to discuss the fact that 270 children do not have a school place for September. Having said that, the issue we are discussing today is an important one. Having listened to the discussion on "Morning Ireland" earlier today, I raise the outrageous situation facing people w…

Not agreed.

Statements on higher education are planned for Thursday but we only had statements on an area of higher education last Thursday. We need statements on special education. We are not sitting next week and there is a crisis in special education school places across the country. It is the last day of May and SNA allocations have yet to be published. I understand the warehousing plan of the Minister of State at the Department of Education with responsibility for special education and inclusion has been scrapped. We do n…

Is that a "No"?

If the Ceann Comhairle was an SNA he would think it was damn necessary to have a debate on special education this week-----

-----or a parent, or somebody seeking a school place. We will be calling a vote on this issue. We demand statements on special education this Thursday to replace the statements on higher education.

The Dáil is not sitting next week.