I welcome the review of SUSI and I am glad to hear that it will be on his desk by Christmas. It is important that it is published immediately so that things can come into effect for next year. The Minister can see how people get lost in the millions and millions, double counting of figures and all that. People feel they are left behind in all of the millions. In July, as part of the package for the safe return to campus, the Minister announced an extra €10 million in financial supports for students and €3 million f…

In light of the rising numbers of people infected by Covid-19 and the arrival of the new variant, will students have an option to complete end of semester exams remotely? Students across the State are seeking clarity and uniformity on what plans are in place to ensure third level institutions are prepared and capable of providing alternative assessments for students who do not wish to sit in-person exams or students who are unable to attend due to requirements to restrict movements.

I understand some colleges, such as University College Cork, have moved all their exams online. I spoke to a number of students from Waterford last night who were told they cannot be facilitated in doing their exams remotely. The issue here is that students do not feel safe or comfortable entering an exam hall with hundreds of other students and students do not want to defer these exams. Many of them depend on working through the summer to pay for college and they cannot afford the cost of deferring. Living situati…

I still think we need uniformity and fairness across institutions in this. Are we really saying it is okay to tell students who are unable to leave their home or who are a close contact that they will have to repeat an exam in August? This will not only result in the punishing of students who follow public health guidance but incentivise some in not adhering to public health advice. I am concerned about that. Too often the response has been reactive rather than proactive. Students are also being asked to submit med…

Like my colleague Deputy Cullinane, I wish to discuss the Saolta hospital group and, in particular, Mayo University Hospital. Mayo University Hospital is in a deep crisis at present, both in terms of the 15,000 people who are waiting for treatment there and in terms of access to the emergency department. People are waiting for hours without treatment. It is not good enough in this day and age. It is not good enough to say that we spend X amount of money. There must be accountability within the system. We also need …

The people in Mayo deserve better and need better at this point. The Minister of State has spoken about staff and looking after them, and I acknowledge the Trojan work they do. Why do we not do exit interviews with all the nurses who are leaving? Why do we not offer contracts that are flexible to meet the family needs of nurses? Why are we going around the world recruiting nurses when only 4% of students who do pre-nursing PLC courses go on to be nurses? The pathways are not there for our own people.

I raise the issue of Covid measures in education settings. First, while I welcome the Minister for Education's announcement regarding substitute teachers, we are 16 school days away from Christmas when schools will be breaking up anyway. We need to know the timelines in terms of substitute teachers. Can teachers expect substitute teachers to be available from Monday of next week? We need the specifics because there are too many vague announcements that do not get to where the people are, on the front line, like tea…

We would not be here this evening if the Minister had used the findings of the OAK consultation with the survivors of the mother and baby homes. Nobody wants to be here, least of all the people who are watching these proceedings tonight. The survivors do not want to be watching this. I send them our solidarity. I thank all of those who have engaged with Deputies across the House and told us their stories. Some of those who are watching tonight have raised a couple of things with me since the debate started. The Min…

I am asking this question on behalf of my party colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, who has been unavoidably detained tonight. We have known for some time now that Covid-19 is an airborne virus and that ventilation, including air filtration, has a key role to play in protecting students and staff in our schools. Sinn Féin has been calling for adequate ventilation measures for the guts of a year now. Will the Minister commit to providing high-efficiency particulate absorbing, HEPA, air filtration devices for every classr…

We all want schools to be open and functioning well but we cannot pretend Covid-19 is not in our schools. Too often the Department seems to minimise these issues. According to a principal in Mayo, 15% of one school's students are at home with Covid-19. If education remaining open is as important as we say it is, surely we should be throwing the kitchen sink at it. While I acknowledge the ventilation measures the Minister has outlined, CO2 monitors alone are not enough to ensure schools remain open safely and functi…

Principals are already at the end of their tether and now it seems responsibility for contact tracing will fall to them and to parents. I urge the Minister to ask the HSE to ensure public health teams have a significant role in contact tracing in our schools. We need school-specific contact tracing. Many school staff are concerned by the details of the antigen testing plan. They are rightly asking what protections, in the context of antigen testing, are in place for them. Given school staff are not part of classroo…

The education system is at crisis point and many schools are struggling to stay afloat. School leaders are working up to midnight every night trying to source substitute teachers for their schools for the next day. Many of these positions remain unfilled and many classes end up with no teacher to take them. According to a survey carried out by the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, nearly one third of substitution days were not covered. Does the Minister accept that there is a substitution crisis in school…

I welcome all of the measures. Some effort has been made to tackle substitution by deploying student teachers, albeit that we have been calling for this for some time. However, it is only part of the solution. Much more can be done, and every school must have access to a substitution panel. This is an emergency, and we need all hands on deck. Student teachers alone will not solve this crisis. Several hundred teachers are on secondment to other bodies. I would not usually advocate this, but given that we are in a st…

The Minister needs to safeguard special educational teaching. Will the Minister reverse the decision to remove banked special education hours - "Yes" or "No"? I go back to my previous question. Does the Minister think there is no need for school-specific contact tracing? What happens with the time delay in having antigen tests delivered to schools? Teachers and parents need more clarity around that.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of having adequate facilities, crucially space, in our schools. In September 2018 a significant monetary commitment was made to ensure all secondary schools would have access to physical education, PE, facilities. This was reiterated in the national development plan last month. However, schools are not seeing any changes, with some waiting years for crucial school hall facilities. When will these be delivered?

I thank the Minister but many schools throughout the country have no access to school hall facilities at all. Many talented students want to study leaving certificate PE but cannot access it as their school does not have the facilities. This is not good enough. It creates a real inequality. What will the Minister do to ensure all students who wish to study PE at leaving certificate level will have the same opportunity to do so and that their school will be provided with the resources to facilitate this? It is my un…

The challenge is that schools are obviously operating in real time. We must allow enough flexibility for the older schools to be able to have these facilities as well. Otherwise we are creating a real inequality. We must work in real time and in the here and now, in the same way as we do in terms of ventilation, having clean air in schools and all of those things. The problem in general with the approach of the Minister and the Department is that everything will be okay in time to come. However, teachers are at the…

Like others I welcome the publication of the air accident report into the R116 tragedy, which will now enable the long-awaited inquest to go ahead. My thoughts are with the families of Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith. Those of us who live on the Mullet Peninsula and the wider Mayo area share a special affinity with these families and with the crew. The whole community took them into their hearts as the tragedy unfolded in the early hours of 14 March 2017. Their courage and dedication are …

It is obvious that we need an urgent review of ambulance resources and the configuration to ensure the emergency service is adequately resourced and run efficiently and effectively. I acknowledge the Trojan work of the dedicated paramedics and other emergency staff. I have seen at first hand their absolute dedication. They deserve much better than what they are being presented with. We are talking about protecting and saving lives and retaining, supporting and protecting ambulance workers – workers who are burnt ou…

The technological universities have the ability to deliver high-quality third level education for many people, including in Mayo and the west, and to be a real driver for regional development. They are one of the most important developments in third level education for decades. Why, with almost no public debate, is the Government using controversial public private partnership contracts for the development of our public education system? Will the Minister outline the reason for this drastic change of approach that w…