I thank all the Deputies who have raised the situation of fifth years. We have had individual contact from some of those students. We need to ensure we give whatever support we can to the class of 2021 because of their lost class time and their return in September with all the challenges ahead of us. We will prioritise them and put support systems in place to ensure that whatever time or parts of the curriculum they have lost, we work with them to make up what was lost. The detail of that is not a finished piece be…

I had a briefing on this issue prepared for me by the National Educational Psychological Service, so it is something we are going to be prepared for when schools go back in September and we will look at whatever resources are required. A lot of the suggestions made here tonight, be they in relation to pupil-teacher ratios, extra support for guidance counsellors or similar, are budgetary considerations. If there are changes to be made in regard to budgetary decisions for any individual Department, those decisions wi…

The meat on the bones will very much be determined by public health advice. We are going to come up with a summer programme and present it to health officials in terms of how it will look. One of the determining features of this process is to have the voices around the table. It was important to have Down's syndrome and autism represented today, as well as the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education, NABMSE, the management body for special schools. Those organisations came back with many c…

I thank the Deputy for raising this topic. He should not be hard on himself about it being 30 years since he did his leaving certificate. I am much older than he is; my leaving certificate was 31 years ago. This is an important issue. I know the school completion programme is something many young people would have availed of during the summer. When I say, therefore, that we are going to look at the July provision and special educational needs, we are also going to look at the whole area of disadvantage. We are goin…

I wish to say to Caoimhe and Rachel, through the Deputy, that fifth years are not being ignored. It is the subject of focus within the Department because many fifth years have lost out on curriculum time. No fifth year student had completed the curriculum for any subject in year one of what is a two-year programme. We are very conscious of that. I agree with the Deputy that it has been a massive disruption for them and the entire school cohort. On the issue of a review of the leaving certificate, as the Deputy will…

I thank Deputy Berry for his question. A few schools that both the Ceann Comhairle and I would be familiar with were referenced in that last contribution, including Coláiste Íosagáin and the schools in Monasterevin and in Newbridge and the Curragh. Deputy Berry will enjoy great levels of co-operation from the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Heydon, both of whom have been very strong on this. I want to reassure all three Deputies, who have been working very closely on this matter, that the building programme in place for…

These are the wider questions we are all going to be grappling with in terms of how we adapt to this phenomenal disruption, not just within the economy but within society, and education is going to be part of that. Certainly, from the conversations I had on Monday with my European counterparts, I know every single country in the European Union is grappling with the same issues. With regard to special education, we are very lucky to have 125 special schools and an extra one - Danu Community Special School - came on …

I thank the Deputy for his questions and for his contribution last week. We have been deliberating on a number of areas that he raised then and he has returned to the issue of students doing leaving certificate subjects outside of school. It will be guided by the direction in the guidelines that will be published tomorrow. Schools and teachers will be given these guidelines and instructions. This is after a process of engagement where high-level discussions were going on since the end of last week and all weekend, …

On the pupil-teacher ratio, PTR, for small schools, I had an opportunity last budget to reduce the PTR for one, two, three and four-teacher schools. Fine Gael also committed to reducing the PTR in future budgets. Maidir le Gaelscoil na Laochra i mBiorra, chas mé leis an gceannaireacht uilig an bhliain atá imithe thart agus tá sé soiléir sa scoil agus sa cheantar seo go mbeidh an scoil seo iontach tábhachtach. Dá mbeadh aon sonraí nó rud ar bith eile de dhíth maidir le dul chun cinn na scoile sin beidh mé sásta teag…

I assure Deputy Harkin that the momentum currently behind the Connacht-Ulster Alliance, CUA, for GMIT and for Mayo, Donegal and Killybegs, as Deputy Pringle will also be anxious to point out, is full steam ahead. It made considerable progress in the back end of last year and they will continue that work. It will be an important project. There has always been an historical link between Letterkenny Institute of Technology and Ulster University Magee. There has also been much collaboration with the higher level instit…

This is a very important question. I assure Deputy Harkin that we are working on that and there will be further clarity tomorrow.

I thank the Deputy and reassure him that, while there has been a fairly long journey in recent years with respect to Killybegs and its place within LYIT, one of the things I was always clear on was that if we were to tap into tourism and marine potential in the way we need to, we need to have a place such as Killybegs, which has a good track record in that regard. My commitment in my time as Minister for Education and Skills has been to ensure that Killybegs will remain at the heart of the future technological univ…

I suppose. Killybegs has made a great contribution to date as part of the institution, not only given its historical track record of bringing through tourism, catering and all the other courses that have been worked on over the years, and it has a strong future. It certainly has my support. On the issues with SUSI grants, I will take all those suggestions on board. There has been a transformative change in education in recent weeks and months. Almost on a daily basis now, we deal with a new issue. If we think that …

Mar is eol don Teach, rinne mé cinneadh agus d'fhógair mé an cinneadh sin an tseachtain seo chaite-----

Chuir mé an ardteistiméireacht ar athlá agus rinne mé an cinneadh fá choinne córas úr na marcanna réamhbheartaithe agus an t-eolas fáchoinne na tuismitheoirí agus na mic léinn atá i gceist anois. Sin an fáth go raibh mé ag obair le mo chuid oifigeach ar an phlean sin agus bhí mé ag an chruinniú ar maidin leis na páirtithe leasmhara éagsúla sna meánscoileanna. Chomh maith leis sin, táimid ag obair ar phlean fá choinne na scoileanna a oscailt i mí Mheán Fómhair agus beidh cruinniú le fóram na mbunscoileanna ar maidin…

There were a lot of questions there and I will try to rattle through them as best I can. In respect of the challenges of tutors outside school, I do not want to put out information before it is decided because we will be in a position next week to give guidance to schools. That information is critical but we have identified students who, for example, are taking music and have a music tutor outside school, and that tutor will be involved in the assessment process. That is important. We have also identified an issue …

Finally, as it is important, may I make this point on the disadvantaged schools and the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS scheme? DEIS status exists for a reason, which is to support those schools. Whenever I have visited a DEIS school in my 18 months in this job, and I have been in many, I speak individually to the teachers, the principals and students and they talk about the progress they are making. They are making progress on a year-to-year basis, and it is good progress. There might be, for e…

If the Deputy wants to put down all the questions I will get a formal response for her.

I thank the Deputies for their questions. Deputy Feighan raised the issue around the advisory group. The advisory group is a collection of management bodies, parent representative groups, student representative voices and the two main unions for the post-primary sector - the TUI and ASTI. The group has been working through a lot of issues and has met seven times. Each time it has met, it has discussed issues such as getting consensus on the junior cycle, mental health issues, and how the practicals and research pro…

I will try to answer as many of the Deputy's questions as I can in the short time available to me. I will ensure she gets a formal response to any that are unanswered. I agree with her regarding the impact in terms of the primary school transition. I re-emphasise that we had a meeting this morning with our officials on that issue. We are getting a lot of correspondence from both parents and teachers and I will keep the House updated if there is any development in that regard. The Deputy is correct about the stress …