I appreciate all those factors and I appreciate the Minister's comments about the commitment of teachers, SNAs and school principals. I have raised, as have other Deputies, the need to analyse and quantify the damage to young people, which was outside the Minister's control, over the past two years in terms of social interaction, anxiety and loss of in-school learning. That point needs to be made in the context of planning for September. If we do go back to something approaching normality in September, then there m…

I find these debates depressing. There is an absolute poverty of ambition or vision in the Minister's speech and from her Department with respect to any real belief in what our education system could be like. In Finland 50 years ago they had an educational revolution. We have been through two crises in the last ten years. One was an economic collapse and we are at present coming out of a health emergency, yet there has been no real attempt by the Department or the Minister leading it to have a vision of a wholly di…

We thank very much all the Deputies across the House who will support the motion and we commend the work of Senator Sherlock, who, on having examined the Government's proposals, committed to producing her own legislation, which she is now pursuing. The Government's proposals, which would require employees to wait up to 26 weeks before they could ask to work remotely and a further 12 weeks before a decision is made, that is, a full pregnancy of 38 weeks before an employee might actually be given the right, go to the…

I will speak of Ukrainian children who may come into our education system. A child coming to a new country, walking into a classroom and not understanding what anybody is saying faces a particularly difficult experience, especially if that child has run for his or her life. Children of Ukrainian-Irish families and children of a Russian background in our school system will also need support. Will the Taoiseach speak to those families and to the Government's intention to provide every support possible to Ukrainian an…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to disapply at separate future dates, in relation to recognised primary and post-primary schools, the exemption provided by certain enactments from the prohibition against discrimination on the gender ground in educational establishments, and to provide for connected matters. I thank my Labour Party colleagues for co-signing this Bill, which provides for all schools in receipt of State funding and recognised by the Department of Education to reflect …

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I thank Deputy Tully for the work she has put into this motion. In my work, several things strike me when I meet the parents of children with additional needs. I refer to the exhaustion and the frustration, as well as the challenge of dealing with a diagnosis that can be quite difficult. It is a learning process. Parents can be dealing with a diagnosis they did not know anything about and which they must endeavour to understand better. They must try to understand the terminology involved and then empower their wide…

Will the Minister issue a directive to further and higher education institutions to retain certain flexible teaching mechanisms after the pandemic to support disabled students, those who cannot afford to live in university towns and those who are immunocompromised?

I know the Minister cannot necessarily direct institutions but he does give them money and could attach a few conditions to that. I agree with him that we need to think differently about education and learn something from the pandemic. Indeed, the idea of having an institution without walls is something I am particularly attracted to. However, the fact is that issues in respect of renting, the accommodation problems students are facing and disability were overcome in a way which showed a lot of ingenuity, forward t…

As the Minister will know, people with disabilities have lower rates of progression to third level. My colleague, Senator Hoey, has been speaking on this recently. They have lower progression rates to third level than the general population. The Association for Higher Education Access and Disability, AHEAD, reported that approximately 12% of students disclosed a disability in a recent survey. The true figure may be as high as 20%. With regard to access to third level, further and higher education, this could be a f…

In the context of what has happened in Ukraine this morning, I ask the Minister of State to give a sense of what his Department can do and what supports he can give to the Ukrainian community here in Ireland through the various organisations with which he has strong relationships. My question relates to the proposed bid for the European championship football tournament in 2028, for which the FAI is co-bidding. What financial supports may his Department have to give in support of that bid?

The nervousness that comes in from football people, who will have different viewpoints on this, is that major infrastructural deficits exist in Irish football. There is controversy over the Dalymount Park plan that is the heartbeat of Irish football, traditionally. There is controversy over what will happen to Tolka Park. One third of all League of Ireland footballers only have a junior certificate as a qualification. This is a much-loved and very important game. It is much-loved in the more disadvantaged areas of …

I appreciate that. The general point is that if one thinks about where football is, its interaction with the education system is minimal compared to other codes. There is greater energy and atmosphere around the League of Ireland than there has been for a number of years. I look forward to going to Dalymount Park on Friday evening to support Bohemian FC. The infrastructure around the League of Ireland is not perfect. It is only five years since the women's team effectively went on strike because of the lack of resp…

I join the other Members in what they have said about the next phase of this process. I would also ask if we have a vision into the future so that we could front-load funding for local authorities. I believe that, in certain circumstances, there are clubs that have expertise within them, perhaps those who have greater education or that have planning experts, engineers, barristers, teachers or whoever on their sporting committees, and there those other sporting clubs that do not have that level of expertise, and thi…

I am greatly encouraged by the Minister of State's response. The vision the Minister of State is outlining is something that I really welcome. The possibility that we will have an audit of the sporting needs of any given community, and that the local authority will be the driver for that, is something that will be welcome. I look forward to working with the Minister of State on it. We would not want to see a particular sporting code or sporting pursuit fall by the wayside or fall through the cracks because some oth…

I do not need an answer. I am okay.

The cost of living is the dominant political issue at present. The package announced last week is a sticking plaster for the problems families and workers are facing. The private sector committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions met last week and recommended that unions seek pay rises in the range of 2.5% to 5.5%. Does the Taoiseach agree with workers seeking pay rises? The committee also sought to change the small benefits exemption rule to increase the limit from €500 to €1,000 for those earning up to €1,462…

I want to know what engagement the Minister has had with the trade union movement on the draft right to request remote working Bill 2022.

The issue the Labour Party has with the Bill as drafted is that the provisions state that a worker would have to wait 26 weeks before requesting permission to work remotely and then potentially 12 further weeks for an answer. That is 38 weeks, which is the length of a pregnancy. The grounds for refusal from an employer are so wide that the Bill is effectively meaningless. We want a right to flexible work, not a right for an employer to refuse it. This is why I ask what sort of engagement the Minister has had with t…

Nobody likes the Bill is effectively what the Minister is saying. I take what he said in good faith and if he is willing to look at the timelines and the grounds for refusal, that is fair comment. We will work with him on that but he will have to appreciate that the power balance in any of these situations very much lies with the employer. Workers are unlikely to feel very confident in going through this process if they feel it will diminish their opportunities for advancement in the workplace in the long term. As …