I thank the Minister. The recent increase is welcome. Is there any possibility or are there plans for AIM to be expanded outside of the ECCE programme for the younger cohort? This comes on the back of a visit I made to a family resource centre which I believe the Minister also visited in Limerick, namely, the King's Island facility. It has a high level of demand for the AIM programme. What often happens is parents can access AIM through the ECCE programme yet the child may be in full daycare. This means that people…

That is welcome news on the review of AIM. It is a more recent programme and we have seen incredible benefits. There are many elements of it. Because the benefits for children are seen, there is high demand for it. It can be expanded certainly to the children in full daycare. There are many sections to that but it is good. In regard to the research which the Minister hopes will be completed between September and December, is there consultation with the early learning group and the interdepartmental group as well? T…

Other Deputies are not present, so I will move on to the Social Democrats.

This debate must adjourn at 3.59 p.m. The Deputy may continue tomorrow.

This matter relates to Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, status for Scoil Mhuire gan Smál in Carlow town. The response will mention the number of schools, including in my constituency, that entered the DEIS system, which is welcome. However, this school's situation is unique in that it is literally adjoining St. Joseph's National School, which was granted DEIS 1 status in the recent round. The two schools are identical in respect of criteria set out for eligibility and share a campus. Pupils in b…

I welcome the fact that the Minister is present. I should have acknowledged that at the start. I understand that the school has band 2 DEIS status but it is really difficult to get your head around how two schools on the same campus that serve the same geographical area and, to a large extent, the same families fall into different DEIS bands with one in band 1 and the other in band 2. Around the country, where schools are side by side, they tend to be given the same DEIS status. That is what would be expected when …

We now move back to the Government side. I call Deputy Cathal Crowe.

I will allow Deputy Danny Healy-Rae in briefly because he narrowly missed his slot. I will give him just two minutes.

Deputy McNamara, let the Minister speak.

The Deputy has had an opportunity already to contribute to the debate. This is the Minister concluding now. There will be a vote later.

The vote is postponed until this evening’s voting block.

The vote is postponed until this evening's voting block.

The Select Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has completed its consideration of the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2020 and has made no amendment thereto. The Select Committee on Justice has completed its consideration of the Garda Síochána (Compensation) Bill 2021 and has made no amendment thereto.

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak about equality and how it impacts on the LGBTI+ community. As the Minister said, we wish everyone a happy Pride. What is really good this year, and especially on a day like today, when it is so sunny, is that we finally have an event that is back to being held in person this weekend. To everybody taking part, my colleagues will be out in support too. It is fantastic that we are living in a society like this. In this Chamber, we often talk about various crises and thing…

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I welcome the amendments from the Seanad. I suppose there were some good steps from the first process of pre-legislative scrutiny through the various Stages - Committee Stage, Report Stage and the Bill's progress through the Seanad. I still have a major issue with the mandatory information session. I do not think the Minister will be shocked or surprised to hear that. It is my motivation for voting against the Bill. However, I welcome the progress that has been made, in particular on the international element. A si…

I will briefly address the matter of the review because it was an issue that originally came up on Committee Stage and that we certainly felt very strongly about. It has been acknowledged on Report Stage, which is very important. To be honest, reviews should be built into all legislation, following a realistic period to allow legislation to bed in. Legislation should not be allowed to be in place for four or five years without being reviewed. I welcome that part of it.

Can we not call a vote on the overall Bill?

There was.

I thank the Minister. I am happy to withdraw our amendments on that basis. His amendment No. 1 is what we were looking for. I know there were many discussions. I thought there were many good, significant changes following Second Stage. We did not have many amendments after that. I am happy the Minister's amendment deals with this. I am glad it was taken on board. It was important.