I sincerely thank Deputy Dolan for raising this important matter and allowing me the opportunity to outline the changes on behalf of the Government and his party colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, Deputy Michael Moynihan, that have been recently made to the enrolment criteria for specific speech and language disorder special classes. There are 63 special classes for pupils with specific speech and language disorder attached to mainstream primary schools in dispersed geograph…

As I outlined previously, the Department has reviewed the enrolment criteria and updated the circular. The updates to the circular were informed by robust engagement with the speech and language therapy service in the National Council for Special Education, the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, and speech and language therapists in the HSE. It was a multifaceted process. There has also been ongoing engagement with school principals on enrolment into these classes for the coming school year. In th…

If it is arranged, then that is the next step. I am more than happy to put on pressure to ensure that it delivers a welcome outcome.

As the Deputy will know, I am very aware of this issue and I have been lobbied intensely by the local councillors. I will lay out a few points for the interest of the Chamber before I get to the meat of the ask, as is appropriate in such a debate. It is important to state for the record that the annual enrolment process for new junior infants at primary and new first-years at post-primary is a very large-scale operation. It is transacted at close to 4,000 schools across the country, involving some 140,000 pupils. I…

I thank the Deputy for using the time available to highlight a really important issue. Being married to a special education teacher, I hear about this quite regularly, as the Deputy can imagine. For anyone who thinks politicians are going on holidays in two weeks' time, I can assure them not only are we not but our school leaders and teachers certainly are not on holidays at the moment. This is perhaps the busiest and most stressful time, particularly for school principals, which Deputy Dolan alluded to in his inte…

I thank the Deputy for expressing condolences in the House. I suppose when he submitted this Topical Issue, he did not think we would be thinking of tragedies on our roads and indeed more high-profile ones. It is a timely reminder. The Ceann Comhairle has such a strong track record on road safety, it is appropriate we take a moment before discussing this specific issue. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister is responsible for overall policy and Exchequer funding with regard to the national roads programme. Once fund…

I am glad to hear that the response was of some use. We look at the quantums available, as I alluded to at the outset of my initial response, in terms of the capital spending budget, not necessarily for new national road projects but the €2.9 billion allocated for the protection and renewal of the existing national road network, with a considerable amount, €502 million, made available this year. The Deputy will recall that we were both in the previous Dáil and we raised many issues in this Chamber as Topical Issues…

I really appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I can confirm the Government is of course not opposing this motion. From my time in this Chamber and before that in the Upper Chamber, I know we all share a long-standing desire to deepen the connections between Ireland and the global Irish, but especially on this island. I know there are very few of us in the Chamber who have not been touched by emigration. I am going to use the ten minutes available to me to do three things, if that is okay with th…

I thank the Senator raising this important matter and for her ongoing advocacy and engagement, in a very constructive manner, on a key issue of importance not just to Ireland and Europe but to the wider world. It is extremely important. The increased focus on burden reduction, or simplification, at EU level is inherently linked to efforts to enhance European and Irish competitiveness in the evolving global trading environment. The Letta and Draghi reports published last year were clear that we must become more inno…

It is clear that this is a moment of change in the EU. It is clear that the need for Europe to become more competitive is existential. However, in just over 12 months Ireland will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and our role in the simplification of the competitiveness agenda will be pivotal. Our role is not only to deliver on that agenda but also, as the Senator rightly says, to make sure that agenda is delivered in a manner that still maintains the hard-fought gains. As we work with …

I am grateful to Senator Boyhan for raising this important issue. To clarify for the Chamber, before I get to the specifics, as Senator Boyhan will appreciate, the mother and baby institutions payment scheme opened for applications in March 2024. It provides payments and health benefits to people who spent time in any of the mother and baby or county home institutions that were identified by the mother and baby homes commission of investigation. As Senator Boyhan knows, a large part of my work as Minister of State …

As of 8 June more than 6,500 applications had been received for the payment scheme. More than 5,200 payments had been processed and completed or were in the process of being made. More than 5,800 notices of termination had issued applicants, over 82% of which contained an offer of benefits. The value of financial payments to date is more than €65 million, a not insignificant amount of money but, in the context of what went on for decades and decades, no amount could be put on it. As I pointed out, section 49 of the…

I thank the Senator. This is our first official engagement. He should not tell the world we had dinner together last night. Let us keep it official as far as possible. As the Senator is aware, the Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding in relation to the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the NDP, the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of …

I am more than happy to take that up with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and would suggest that the Senator puts those concerns in writing to TII, as I think he already has. A lot of this is about getting people together in the one discussion. There are multiple local authorities involved, a State institution and the Department over all with the budgetary and policy purview. I completely understand the concerns and agree with the need to review those speed limits now and not just wait until this project is finished.…

I thank both Senators for their contributions this morning, particularly Senator Crowe for placing this. I will be quite frank; this is the second time I have taken a Commencement matter of this nature. Admittedly, the first time was not in this iteration of the Seanad but it is remarkable that, two years on, we are dealing with the same question. I hope we will be able to give more of a positive update than the last time. The State Examinations Commission, as the Senators are aware, has responsibility for the reas…

The key point is that this will be concluded and communicated in order that it will be in place for the examinations in 2026. We are at an advanced stage. The work is largely done. Let us finish it off. Changing this in order that we implement this in September rather than December will not make a difference for those sitting the State examinations in 2026. Let us make sure that due process is followed. I completely take on the insights of both Senators, particularly Senator Curley's real-world experiences in readi…

I sincerely thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising this topic, which he knows is extremely close to my heart. He has years of experience of involvement, in his local community of Clontarf and beyond, in this specific area and this is a great opportunity to delve into it a little bit. Since 2020 the Department of education has invested more than €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the national development plan. This has involved the completion of more than 1,375 school building projects. Government supp…

I fully empathise, especially with the comparison with Manor House School. I happen to know the pitch quite well from previous exploits as a really bad coach. I appreciate a pitch of that size represents serious capital work that is obviously way beyond the schemes laid out that are open at the moment. However, we have seen examples where there have been what I would not call public-private partnerships but community partnerships involving the local authorities and local sports and schools at both primary and post-…

I had to check my phone because in the Deputy's new guise as Oireachtas AI committee chairperson, I had to see if he had been reading my phone for the correspondence I have just had with the principal of a local national school in my area on more or less this exact point. This is an issue that regularly comes up for every Member of this House and I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House, on behalf of the Minister, the position as to why the capitation grant for primary schools is les…

I will address three points in response. I will come to a broader point, but the first is that if there are specific schools, the financial support services unit, FSSU, on behalf of the Department plays a crucial role in seeing where there are funding gaps. In order for the Department to assess the current financial situation, the school needs to engage with the FSSU for the purpose. The Department will refer this school to the FSSU once confirmation of the situation is confirmed. If you have an individual school i…