I understand the financials that the Minister has issued and has spoken about, but I still do not hear a definitive number for what the increase in capacity will be. People, particularly those outside urban areas, are choosing to come to live in smaller towns and villages. They are most welcome to leave the bigger cities, set up in those towns and villages, make them their homes and work and raise their families there. Increasingly, we are seeing that these people are not able to get their children into local schoo…

Will the Minister outline her plans to ensure that no child is left without an appropriate school place for the coming September?

Any parent with a child with special educational needs will say that when their child's need is met it comes as the result of a struggle, fight or battle of some degree. To date the Government has reacted to a series of crises rather than adequately planning out the future. Some very welcome changes were made in this regard but, despite the energy and effort at the time, we still see children with special educational needs who have not been offered a place for September. I have to question the effectiveness of the …

I thank the Minister. This is not just about navigating the system so that we do not have parents such as Sarah Dooley, about whom I have spoken to the Minister previously. She applied to 20 schools before her little boys were offered a place. This will mean a 90-minute round trip for those children to get to school in September. This is not inclusivity. They are literally excluded from their own community. The Department produced a document on projected enrolment which was recently updated. It specifically emphasi…

I ask the Minister if she plans to remove the Catholic certificate that some schools require of teachers.

I do not want to look at this from the perspective of multidenominational schools. That is a very valid conversation for another day. However, teachers should be hired on their skills, their ability, their experience and their qualifications to actually impart learning to the students in their classrooms. As there is a constitutional right for a learner to opt out of religion, why is this restriction still being placed on some teachers to be able to deliver that? The cold hard fact is that the 2022 census found tha…

I wish a very happy International Women's Day to all the ladies in the Ceann Comhairle's world. International Women’s Day is a day when we can celebrate the advances and achievements by women across the globe towards gender equality. Women who wanted a better life for themselves, their daughters and their granddaughters made sacrifices to make the mountain that little bit taller so that women today can see that little bit further. It needs to be recognised that while progress has been made to some degree in Ireland…

People with disabilities and carers in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath and across the State deserve much better than feeling abandoned and constantly let down by the Government. They need to see the delivery of substantial supports like assessments of need, therapy supports, personal assistants, home care assistants, assistive technology and respite. They need the Government to ratify the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. They at least need a date today, because the protocol calls for the transformation of pol…

More than half of our domestic violence refuges around the country are full and local refuges are being forced to turn women and children away. Many of those women and children, in turn, have to travel to other parts of the country simply to seek safety. This is happening at a time when the Garda has told us it has received more than 60,000 calls concerning domestic abuse. Last December, the Minister for Justice said 98 refuge units would be delivered by the end of 2025 in the priority areas. Westmeath is deemed a …

While plans to build a new, purpose-built refuge centre already exist on paper, a suitable site is lacking and this is holding up the project. Will the Minister offer assistance to Esker House in sourcing a new site? If no site can be identified, how does the Government intend to meet its own targets and where will women and children in desperate need of safety go?

The crisis in youth mental health has turned into an emergency under this Government and there is no way the Ministers of State can deny that. Under this Government, the CAMHS waiting list for first-time appointments in CHO 8, which covers my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, has grown from 270 in July 2022 to 695, which is the last available number. The number of young people waiting over a year is 115, the second highest in the State. Behind each and every one of those figures is an actual young person or young…

Yesterday, Inclusion Ireland and AsIAm outlined their profound concern following a survey reporting that 35% of disabled children experience seclusion and 27% of disabled children suffer restraint at school. These are children who have been locked in rooms alone, dragged across floors or have been held or lifted against their will. Parents spoke of feeling powerless, in fear of retribution and the removal of vital supports for which they fought long and hard. There is little doubt that the lack of robust guidance a…

It speaks to a lack of guidelines.

It has been 14 years-----

-----and current guidelines-----

Sinn Féin appreciates the value of this scheme which has provided shelter to those fleeing war and thanks should be given to the families who have opened up their homes, welcomed and provided refuge to Ukrainian families in their hour of need. However, the further extension of the scheme, as the Minister is putting forward, creates an unacceptable level of competition for private rental properties at a time when pressure on this market has never been higher, and that incentivisation of displacing some private rente…

Deputy Ó Ríordáin is not here yet and he is listed to speak first, but we will go ahead.

Every child has a constitutional right to an education and everyone agrees that no child should be left behind. Last month, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, published its report, An Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Society, which shows a majority of those who engaged with the consultation agreed that children, even those with special educational needs, should be educated in the same school as others. However, they expressed fears about supports in mainstream schools for students with complex ne…

The Minister of State said there are more special education teachers than ever before. There is also evidence that classrooms have a higher percentage of children with additional needs than ever before. I go back to that broken system that Inclusion Ireland spoke of. The Minister of State is familiar with Sarah Dooley, who has been in contact with her office. This is the real-life impact of that broken system. Her sons, John and Patrick, have applied to 19 schools but have not received one offer. Both little boys h…

The Department of Education has reduced the criteria for the allocation of special education teacher hours and removed the complex needs criteria from the calculation. Some 76% of principals of primary schools say the 2024-25 allocation does not meet the needs of children for the upcoming academic year and is wholly inadequate, while 37% reported a decrease in their allocations despite evidence that classrooms have a higher number of children with additional needs than ever before. How are these cuts in the best in…