This relates to the leaving certificate for next year. Has the Minister made any decisions or have plans been put in place for leaving certificate 2022? Will such decisions be made in a timely fashion so teachers, students and parents will know the position when schools return in September?

In the course of the conversations over the past few days about NPHET, advice, a question mark - although not a major one - was placed beside the potential return to school in September. Nobody expects that to be an eventuality but it has still been brought into the conversation. Would it not be a cleaner or better for the Minister to decide now to roll out leaving certificate 2022 exactly as the leaving certificate for 2021 has been rolled out, with a choice for students? Fifth year students have lost quite a numb…

I understand that the Minister needs to go through with the wide-ranging consultation with students, parents, teachers and other representatives. A number of months of in-school tuition have been lost to that fifth year cohort now going into sixth year. The July plans have already been delayed and NPHET is suggesting the potential, if everything went badly wrong, for a question mark over the reopening of schools in September. I appreciate that the Minister cannot make a definite decision on the floor of the House. …

This is the type of politics that people do not often see or comment on enough. It shows the positive side of this House, whereby a piece of progressive legislation is presented by the Opposition, in this case by Deputy Pringle following on from the work of former Senator Kelleher, and is accepted and supported by Government in an attempt to advance and improve the lives of a particularly vulnerable group. I thank the Minister for supporting the Bill. In respect of Irish politics, I would also say that we should be…

Senator Bacik and I have been campaigning since February for a catch-up fund for children. The Government must invest in education for children who have lost out on in-school learning over the past year and a half or so. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, announced two weeks ago she was working on a multimillion euro fund to this end. She said she would announce it shortly. She was not in a position to say when or how much. The Tánaiste will be aware that a major controversy has arisen over the catch-up for …

I welcome the Ministers of State. I am a little bit taken aback by the Minister of State's address as it appeared she wanted to inform the House that everything is basically okay, that everything is fine, that Government is on top of things and that there is nothing to see here. Anybody who understands the education system well, and particularly how it interacts with the health system, will know that there were very significant problems before the pandemic. If the Minister of State were to stand up, acknowledge tha…

I, too, am disappointed with the response of the Minister of State. Ireland has had a dysfunctional relationship with property and housing for many years and it is making a great many people utterly miserable. Highly disproportionate amounts of people's incomes are shovelled into mortgage repayments and rents every month. That money could be spent on their families, on life and on connectivity with other human beings. Instead, we have all been sucked into the race to believe we have to chain ourselves to a mortgage…

Yes, I am happy to proceed.

The Tánaiste will be aware that there were two announcements in the Baldoyle area over the past six months that are to result in the loss of over 540 jobs. Will the Tánaiste work with local representatives to discuss this issue? What plans does his Department have to deal with this, to ensure there will be no further job losses in the Baldoyle area and to ensure that those affected by these announcements will get all the supports they need?

I wrote to the Tánaiste a month ago seeking a meeting with all local representatives to discuss the situation in Baldoyle. In the past six months there have been two separate announcements of job losses, affecting more than 540 people. I wrote to him again to seek a meeting with our local representatives. Does the Tánaiste feel that our local representatives, Deputies from all parties, are part of the solution? We are, obviously, in daily contact with many of the people who are affected by this issue. We want to en…

I welcome the Tánaiste's remarks and his commitment to having a meeting. He will appreciate that I might be a bit frustrated. In two letters from me over the course of a month, I did not get anywhere. Then in an oral exchange in this Chamber I have now got a commitment to a meeting. However, I will take that in good faith and we can certainly work together. If two such announcements involving more than 540 job losses happened anywhere else in the State, I am sure that a slew of Ministers would be travelling to that…

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to establish a citizens' assembly on the issue of drugs. There is growing momentum for a radical rethink of our entire drug strategy. We have the third highest overdose rate in Europe and there is a belief that this supposed war on drugs is killing marginalised people. There is a view that we need to decriminalise the drug user - not decriminalise drugs or legalise them, but take the drug user out of the criminal justice system. The Taoiseach will have seen the …

Has the Taoiseach sought to meet Mr. Edwin Poots since he became leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP? We are very much at risk of a further breakdown in relations, and Mr. Poots is of the view that North-South relations have never been worse. Ms Nichola Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, SDLP, has sought legal advice on the boycott by the DUP of the North-South Ministerial Council meetings. Has the Taoiseach received any advice on this? The North-South Ministerial Council is a key part of th…

Senator Bacik and I have been advocating for quite a while for a catch-up fund for children in the next school year. The Taoiseach will be aware of the scarring and damage experienced by young people and children, particularly disadvantaged children, in the past year or so owing to the lack of in-school tuition. The UK has provided a fund of £1 billion. The Government here has allocated approximately €40 million for a summer programme. Will the Taoiseach speak to the necessity for catch-up funding? Will he also spe…

This is on the same topic. It is on amending the earnings disregard for qualification for a SUSI grant to include support received by students in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment. It will give the Minister an opportunity to expand on what he has already said.

It may not be a major factor in every case but for the individual cases in which it may be a factor, it could be life-changing. This is the issue. My understanding is that there is a €4,500 income disregard applied to any income earned during the period for the SUSI grant applications and students are being advised that income from the PUP payment is not included in the income disregard. I am asking the Minister that the PUP be automatically included in the income disregard for applicants of the SUSI grant scheme b…

At what point will the Minister be satisfied that the system that he is overseeing will meet all the requirements that he hopes it will meet?

The Minister is very welcome. I thank her for producing legislation to underpin this process. It is timely and important. We worked together to waive the necessity for pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, which was a good sign that we would work on this together. Respectfully I have to disagree with my Sinn Féin colleague on the issue of canvassing. The Labour Party is quite comfortable with these elements of the Bill. The message must be sent out to the entire education community that one cannot talk to a teacher…

Do we need-----

This is quite unusual.