That is right, but the Deputy is there nonetheless. I wish to acknowledge the major contribution being made daily by all school leaders in successfully operating Irish schools to an incredibly high standard. Budget 2017 allowed for the commencement of restoration of middle management posts as part of an agreed distributed leadership model and meant lifting the rigidity of the long-standing moratorium on these posts. The equivalent of approximately 1,300 middle management posts, namely assistant principal, AP, I and…

I thank the Deputy. I appreciate and acknowledge every day that more is being asked within our schools. That is of all staff, whether it is the teaching staff, school secretary, caretaker, our SNAs and obviously our school leadership and boards of management, to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude. In terms of supporting school leadership and the concept of distributed leadership, we have made significant progress. In 2022, as I said, under sectoral bargaining, 1,450 posts of responsibility were made available to …

I do not disagree with anything the Deputy has said in terms of the importance of supporting schools and ensuring they are free. We have already had this discussion earlier today in terms of access to education and it being free. I already highlighted the supports we provide. These include, free school books, reduced school transport costs, ensuring that there is no payment for junior or leaving certificate examinations, the increased supports to DEIS at around €180 million and the rolling out of the hot school mea…

I thank Deputy Wynne for her question. The answer will be similar to that given in respect of a previous question. As I indicated earlier, since 2011, arrangements have been in place for the establishment of new schools involving the forecasting of demand for school places based on demographic exercises carried out by the Department. New schools are only established in areas of demographic growth, as the resources available for school infrastructure have to be prioritised to ensure that every child has a school pla…

I appreciate that sterling work is being done at Gaelcholáiste an Chláir in regard to the promotion of the Irish language. I am aware of the work being done by the staff, the atmosphere that is being cultivated in the aonad and the first-class provision for students. However, the Department must look at the numbers when it receives an application. I acknowledge that an application was received from Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board. We have committed to looking at it. We have highlighted that there ar…

I appreciate the case the Deputy has made. I appreciate the case that has been made by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and by Gaelcholáiste an Chláir itself. I can only reiterate that there are issues that need to be addressed. In particular, we have identified issues regarding uptake of places. We have an openness to working through those issues. We are positively and favourably disposed towards the establishment, ultimately, of a stand-alone Gaelcholáiste. However, we must address the issues that …

The Department is taking a staged approach to developing a comprehensive policy for the Irish language from preschool through to teacher education. There are three strands to this work as it relates to the Department of Education, namely the policy on Gaeltacht education, the policy on Irish-medium education outside the Gaeltacht, and the work commencing on a policy framework and action plan to support Irish in English-medium schools. Significant progress has been made by my Department in implementing the policy on…

There is a significant commitment from the Department to progressing and supporting the growth of the Irish language. We have deemed it necessary to take a staged approach to this objective. We began with the policy on Gaeltacht education, on which significant progress has been made, including the development of the BEd and MEd, support for international research and supports for schools in obtaining their Gaeltacht recognition certificates. There has been a phenomenal uptake by schools of all of that. The second s…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Tuigim an tábhacht atá ag baint leis an nGaelainn. Ní hamháin sin ach táimid ag déanamh gach iarracht sa Roinn an Ghaelainn a chaomhnú agus í a chur chun cinn. I have already outlined our support to ensure we are progressing the Irish language. We took the staged stance here. Great progress has been made on the provision of Irish within the Gaeltacht areas. We have, as has been outlined, the need for very strong fluency. We have the BEd, the MEd and the teaching resources that are …

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge his ongoing engagement on this matter and that of Deputy O'Connor and the other Deputies who are concerned about it. I appreciate Deputy Stanton and I have had a number of conversations on this. The school was established in 2018 under the patronage divestment process. Fermoy was one of a number of areas surveyed in 2012 and 2013 under the patronage divesting process where there was sufficient parental demand supporting changes in school patronage. The areas surveyed were areas whe…

I thank the Deputy very much. For absolute clarity, I reiterate that when the school was inaugurated in 2018, this was done under the patronage divesting process. There was an agreement with the patron of the Educate Together school and the ETB that it would be a shared campus and the school would be capped at the numbers at the time, in a four-classroom school, until additional accommodation became available. That was the agreement. It was signed up to on behalf of the school by the patron. Somewhere along the lin…

Again, we want to be helpful here. It is for that reason we ensured a technical assessment would take place to see if we can find a pathway forward. There was the request to the building officer from Educate Together to engage with the school on the ground. We want to move a step forward. However it is important - and I do not always hear this element being recognised or admitted to in discussions I have heard in other contexts - that there was an agreement in the first instance with the patron on behalf of the sch…

The Government is not opposing this motion. I thank Deputy Harkin and her colleagues for tabling this motion. As I have said, the Government is not opposing it. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the House this morning on the very important matter of primary school funding and the many measures under way by the Government to support primary schools. The issue of school funding is a very significant element of every school's operation. I am acutely aware of the matters raised in the motion concerning funding and …

I appreciate the opportunity to express my support for the EU migration and asylum pact. Migration has been always with us and has been always a part of the fabric of our life here. We in Ireland have a particular affinity with the United States, for example, and so many of our people went to the United States when times were very difficult here in Ireland, so we in Ireland have an appreciation, some small understanding, of those who have to leave their own countries in difficult circumstances to find new opportuni…

The school referred to in Fermoy was established in 2018 under the patronage divestment process. Fermoy was one of a number of areas surveyed in 2012-13 as part of the patronage divesting process, where there was sufficient parental demand supporting changes in school patronage. The areas surveyed were areas where demographics were not growing and therefore it was unlikely that a new multidenominational school would be established for demographic reasons alone. The clear policy on patronage divestment was to use ex…

As part of the engagement with the school patron, the Department outlined what was available at that time and that it would be a shared process between the ETB and the school. That was agreed at the time. However, the school has taken the decision to accept a significant increase in enrolments from 52 in the 2022-23 school year to 85 in the 2023-24 school year. Individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care. The configur…

In the lifetime of this Government, over €4.8 billion has been expended on school buildings and extended accommodation. That includes 800 projects that have been completed by the Department and 300 projects at various stages of development that are currently on site. The Deputy will be aware that earlier this year, I made an announcement of €800 million in additional funding that would provide for 90 or more projects to move to construction stage so there has been no shortage. The Deputy specifically referred to sp…

I assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post-primary levels, including children and young people with special educational needs, is a priority for the Department. Since 2020, as I have previously outlined to the Deputy opposite, my Department has invested approximately €4.8 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of more than 800 school building projects. Construction is currently under way on approximately…

I thank the Deputy. I concede that construction on some of these projects began in 2018.

Since that time, we have seen an incredible influx of additional students coming from other places around the world, but also coming specifically into the area. I know these schools. I have visited and seen them. They are excellent schools that are doing great work and they deliver excellence in education every day. Some €150 million has been invested in Galway. There will be further investment as well. The Deputy has referenced the two schools. I also want to make a point about the sharing of data. I want to ackno…