I thank Senator Seery Kearney for giving me the opportunity to address this issue. I speak as someone who is not just a Minister of State in the Department but as a Deputy in a constituency where this was an issue a number of years ago, where the demographic projections of the Department did not match what was happening on the ground for various reasons. I believe the Department system has improved immensely since then. If the Senator has specific information on numbers, and if the teachers and principals of the pr…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar seo a chur ar chlár oibre an tSeanaid inniu. Illness benefit is the primary short-term income support provided by the Department to those who cannot work due to illness of any type and who are covered by social insurance. Eligibility for illness benefit depends on the person's PRSI record and class. People must have made the required number of contributions of class A, E, H or P to qualify. In general, self-employed people make PRSI contributions in class S, which does…

I acknowledge the circumstances the Senator's constituent is undergoing and I wish that person the very best of luck with their health challenges. As I have said already, if he could outline them in more detail to the Minister I am sure she would be very happy to get her officials to look at the matter. The Government in recent years has already extended a number of social insurance benefits to the self-employed without any increase in their PRSI rate. It is well known that the Social Insurance Fund will face signi…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an ábhar seo a ardú mar Shaincheist Tráthúil. It gives me the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, who cannot be here this evening. I am in the Department under the Minister. I will outline to the House, on behalf of the Minister, the current position in relation to capital projects to deliver replacement and additional accommodation for Davitt College and St. Bríd's Special School under the Department’s reconfiguration and modular accommodation program…

Deputy Dillon can say whatever he wishes. He is right to advocate for his community and for schools. It is very important for Ministers to give the exact response. I cannot just come in here and talk off the top of my head. I need to get the exact position of the Department and that is what I am outlining. That is why the response is always carefully worded in these situations. However, I can assure the Deputy that the Department of Education will continue to look at and employ methods of expediting delivery of the…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an ábhar seo a chur mar shaincheist sa Dáil. It provides me with an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, who cannot be here this morning, to outline the current position in respect of capital projects to deliver replacement and additional accommodation for Blessington Community College and Temple Carrig School under the reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. With respect to Blessington Community College, the school authority, which is Kildare and Wi…

I thank the Deputy for raising these issues. On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, I reassure the House that her Department is committed to the accelerated provision of the urgent school accommodation the Deputy has talked about for Blessington Community College and Temple Carrig School. In the wider context, the Department of Education is conscious of the urgency in providing accelerated delivery of school accommodation at both schools. Officials in the Department are working closely with both school authoritie…

I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Education, who I know is conscious of the need to ensure that schools are supported, enabling them to maximise teaching and learning outcomes for all students. It is vitally important that the education system is one where all children and young people feel equally supported. All migrant children, including children of international protection applicants, refugees, migrant workers and unaccompanied minors can access preschool, primary and post-primary education in a man…

I will certainly take all of that back to the Department and to my senior Minister. I understand the need for increased capitation funding. Capitation rates have increased by 7.5% in recent years and all schools have benefited from that. The Minister intends to seek funding for further capitation increases in future budgets. In addition, the scope of the regional education and language teams has expanded beyond serving Ukrainian families. It now encompasses the educational needs of all international protection asyl…

This is a debate on mental health in schools.

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, I thank Senator Garvey and her colleagues for tabling the motion. Together with our colleagues in the Department of Health and the HSE, who have responsibility for mental health services, the Department of Education plays an important role in supporting the well-being of our young people. It is important. Another important point, as a number of colleagues have said, is that the primary responsibility for mental health lies with the Department of Health and the HSE. Guidance …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a chur ar an gclár oibre. It gives me the opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the new building project for Kilsheelan National School, County Tipperary. It is a co-educational primary school and enrolment for the school in September 2022 was 96 pupils, of whom 56 were boys and 40 were girls. I am pleased to advise the House, as the Senator has acknowledged, that approval was granted to the school authority for funding under…

The Senator can tell the parents that a lot is happening here. There are normal procedural matters that must be attended to between the Department and the school. Be assured that the Department is fully committed to providing extra school accommodation to Kilsheelan National School. Be further assured that the officials in our Department will continue to work with the school authorities to ensure this important project for the wider school community will be delivered as quickly as possible, as the Senator and paren…

I thank the Senator very much for raising this matter. It is right that she is here to advocate on behalf of Tristan. I certainly want to do everything to help children like Tristan achieve what they can achieve. I am not the Minister with responsibility for this area, although that responsibility lies with the Department of Education. The answer may not give the Senator all the information she needs but I will certainly take up directly within the Department the issue she raised. I realise its importance and that …

I thank the Senator. I will say two things. The money has been increased. This should help more children access the technology, and the review will have some impact. On the particular case raised by the Senator, I am very happy to take it up within the Department with the Secretary General, and let her know the position in this regard, namely, that the child cannot even ask for this because of the situation that obtains in the Senator's area. I will certainly follow this up.

Sport Ireland is the statutory body with responsibility for the development of sport, increasing participation at all levels and raising standards. This includes the allocation of funding across its various programmes. Sport Ireland does not provide direct funding for clubs or individuals, but channels it through the national governing bodies. There is no mechanism by which Sport Ireland can allocate funding outside of this process, and there is no direct funding scheme though which Sport Ireland can support sporti…

The reason I referred to Sport Ireland is that all the money we give to boxing goes through Sport Ireland. That is probably the answer I am giving here today. We are very supportive of these initiatives and there may be other avenues of support available to the project, indeed, directly through the IABA, which gets more than €500,000 in direct funding from us every year. I do not know, but there may well be funding available from the Department of Foreign Affairs or the local authorities in the area. I urge the Dep…

As I said, Sport Ireland has allocated over €500,000 to the IABA. That is really the only avenue through which we fund boxing. It has increased and it is going to increase. We support it financially. Just to be clear, we did not offer financial assistance to the Katie Taylor fight this week. We met the promoters, and I have to say, the Deputy's own party was advocating very strongly for me to do that. We did meet them and talked to them, but there was no offer of Government funding arising out of that particular ex…

I will take Questions Nos. 11, 14, 17, 19, 35 and 40 together. The sports capital and equipment programme, SCEP, is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. More than 13,000 projects have benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to in excess of €1.15 billion. The programme for Government commits to continuing the programme and to pri…

The Minister and I are having good engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. It will certainly be listening closely to what Deputy Griffin said. We welcome that. The engagement with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is also good. We are keen to get the programme open because sports clubs are waiting for it. They are keen to apply and are getting ready for it. In response to Deputy Andrews, we will not abolish or replace this programme, which he previously calle…