Cabinet Committees

26. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [72062/26]

27. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [72001/26]

28. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [69991/26]

29. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [69990/26]

30. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [69902/26]

31. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [69885/26]

32. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [68789/26]

33. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [68633/26]

34. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [67764/26]

35. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [67179/26]

36. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [66937/26]

37. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [66922/26]

38. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [66871/26]

39. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [66850/26]

40. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [65369/26]

41. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [65174/26]

42. Deputy John Connolly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [64284/26]

43. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [64283/26]

44. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [64282/26]

45. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will meet next. [64281/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 26 to 45, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on children and education oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of children and education. It receives detailed reports on identified policy areas such as child poverty and well-being, and education. The membership of the Cabinet committee on children and education includes the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. I will not go through the full list. The programme for Government contains many important commitments intended to improve the lives of all children, and especially those children who need our help most. We are making substantial progress in realising these goals. Government is committed to a multi-year programme to reduce consistent child poverty to 3% or less by the end of 2030. The most significant Survey on Income and Living Conditions, SILC, figures show that we are on this path, revealing that consistent child poverty reduced from 8.5% in 2024 to 7.8% in 2025. Budget 2027 includes a strong package of measures aimed at reducing child poverty through both increased family incomes and lower household costs. Key measures include a €6 per week increase in child support payments, a €10 per week increase in core social welfare rates and a €30 increase in the income thresholds for the working family payment, providing additional support to low and middle-income families. Alongside these income and cost-of-living supports, the Government is also making other important investments, including €1.8 million provided for an additional ten new family resource centres. A total of €1.65 billion in current funding has been allocated under budget 2027 for early learning and childcare. This represents an 11% increase on last year's funding or an additional €161.8 million. Of the total allocation, €534.6 million will be used to support a range of important priorities in the sector, including the introduction of new maximum fee caps. As part of the early learning and childcare packages in budget 2027, parents' bills will reduce to no more than €550 a month from next September, for children who are being minded for 45 hours a week - a reduction of 25%. This represents an important milestone in the journey towards permanently reducing the cap on parental fees to €200 per month within the current Government's lifetime. By making high-quality childcare more accessible and affordable, the Government is helping to close gender gaps in the workforce, reduce financial pressures on families and provide children with the strong foundations they need for future success. The Government's vision for education is to deliver a world-class education system which breaks down barriers and ensures every child can achieve their full potential. A record €14.4 billion investment has been provided for education and youth services in the budget, with an overall budget allocation of €5.3 billion for further and higher education, research, innovation and science. The budget also funds the forthcoming child and family homelessness action plan. Preventing homelessness is, and will remain, our first priority. Where homelessness cannot be prevented, this plan will aim to ensure that families find a stable home as quickly as possible, and puts in place the supports needed to ensure that any experience of homelessness is as brief, and as little damaging, as it can be. Meeting the needs of children with disabilities is a priority for me and for Government. That is why we established a dedicated Cabinet committee on disability. The work of this Cabinet committee is progressing important initiatives to respond to the needs and well-being of children. Significant increases in investment in disability services are being delivered. The Cabinet committee on children and education met yesterday and it will meet again in the coming period. Yesterday was predominantly on education issues, the education convention, and also issues pertaining to school transport and to special needs education.

Availability of after-school places remains a key problem in my constituency of Dublin West. I have spoken to constituents who have had to switch from full-time work to part-time hours solely due to the lack of after-school places. Using primary school classrooms as locations for after-school services could make a big difference. Will the Taoiseach engage with the Minister for Education and Youth and ask that she would alter the guidance to primary schools regarding making rooms available to after-school providers and make this mandatory in order to increase the availability of after-school services?

The Taoiseach can well appreciate the demands on parents who are trying, and often unsuccessfully, to find placements for their children. Childcare remains one of the biggest barriers to people participating in the economy, to being employed and to having that job, the Taoiseach mentioned earlier in the Chamber that can lead to so much social good. Will the Taoiseach undertake to have regard to the childcare situation in Waterford, particularly in Dunmore, Dungarvan and Tramore, where parents are routinely finding it impossible to find a suitable placement for their children?

Tá pobal Ghaelchólaiste Reachrann, an fhoireann, na tuismitheoirí agus na daltaí ag fanacht le 25 bliain. They are waiting 25 years for permanent school buildings. The Minister for education promised them that construction would begin in quarter 2 of this year. That passed. Construction did not start. Then the promise was quarter 3 of this year. That passed. Construction did not start. Then the promise was quarter 4 of this year. That commitment now is being reneged on and the Department of education is saying it will be sometime in the coming months. When will construction start on the permanent school buildings promised to the school community in Gaelchólaiste Reachrann? When will that begin?

Cad a dúirt an Teachta faoin tender?

I want to raise the issue of primary and secondary school teachers not being able to secure permanent teaching contracts. I have been contacted by many local teachers in County Galway about this issue and how it is impacting them. One of these teachers described to me how the inability to secure a permanent contract of indefinite duration, CID, meant she was dependent on daily substitution work. She has no job security and no reliable income. However, we have not seen any moves to address the insecurity that CID requirements are placing on teachers. Will the Government undertake a review of the wider CID system, including how it is being implemented by schools and the oversight the Department has of the system?

I want to raise the issue of school bus transport. We should not have to be fighting for seats on buses for children these days. Rice College Westport is over capacity, which means parents from Newport have to send their children to Davitt College in Castlebar, yet there is no school bus to be able to do that. There are buses running, but these students cannot be allocated seats on them. I ask the Taoiseach to look into the situation. The nearest school is oversubscribed and the children want to go to Davitt College in Castlebar. It is a real, live situation in Newport that needs to be solved. I am asking for a bit of flexibility and common sense on this so that children can get seats on the bus. It impacts on parents' work and family lives as well.

I want to raise Riverview Educate Together National School in Greenhills. I visited the school back in January. The school seems to do incredible work, but it was packed to the brim with students. Back then, I was putting in parliamentary questions about requests for additional school accommodation. The school needs an extension, but it is still waiting and there is no progress. It is going to have real impacts on students, or potential students, in this area. The school has sanction from the Department to go from one stream to two. It has done that for two years, but it is now out of room. If it does not have an agreement for an extension, it will go back to one stream, which means that a huge number of families will be left without an appropriate school place. Some 38% of respondents in that area say their preferred option would be a multidenominational school, but this is the only primary school. If it does not get the extra accommodation, there will only be 25 places come September 2027.

The autumn legislative agenda included a Bill to amend the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 to bring under-sixes within the scope of the Educational Welfare Service to ensure earlier intervention for those children and their families. That is to be greatly welcomed, but we also need to look at the other end of the educational journey. We should bring within the scope of the Educational Welfare Service all children in primary and secondary schools who can be referred for its services. Currently, the Educational Welfare Service cannot receive references for over-16s. We know from school completion data that we have high rates of school completion, but if there is an area where it drops off, it is among over-16s. We should use this opportunity to ensure that all children in primary and secondary school can be referred to and benefit from the Educational Welfare Service.

St. Patrick’s National School is a fine primary school in the village of O’Callaghan’s Mills in east Clare. Like many rural schools, its enrolment has dropped in recent years, but the principal, Gráinne Conlon, and her board of management have come up with a novel idea. There is no Gaelscoil in east Clare, so they are proposing to the Department of education that the school would reopen in September 2027 as a Gaelscoil. This idea has been warmly received by the Department. Initially, the school would have an intake of junior infant children, and slowly, across the eight years and all age grades, it would transition to be a scoil lán-Ghaeilge. This has the backing of the bishop, the patron, the board of management and the community. I have been out to visit the school. We want the Government to sanction and resource the school to make this a success in September 2027.

Gaeilge is a fundamental part of our national identity, heritage and culture, and I think we all want to see it thrive. However, we need to have an honest conversation in this House and this country about how we teach Gaeilge in our schools and whether we are taking the best approach, because I do not believe we are. How is it possible that after 13 or 14 years of education in Gaeilge, a young person can leave secondary school and still not be able to hold a conversation as Gaeilge? Surely we have to look at a new approach, one that looks at communication, confidence and the spoken language, if we are truly to see our national language thrive and survive for many years to come. Will the Government look at how we approach the teaching of Irish in our schools?

I thank all the Deputies for their comments. In response to Deputy O’Gorman, some schools make facilities available for after-school services. I will talk to the Minister for children and the Minister for education about this. Very often, what happens is that those in the governance of an individual primary school or second level school are paranoid about who minds the school, who looks after the school, who locks up afterwards and things like that, but it increasingly makes absolute sense that we would use existing facilities, sweat the asset and make it available for children and young people in a given area in terms of after-school services. I will speak to both Ministers in respect of that. The idea is a good one and should be advanced. Deputy McGuinness raised the issue of childcare in Waterford in particular. There are three fundamental pillars to childcare: places, affordability and the pay and conditions of those who work in childcare. It would be fair to say that we would not start off from where we are today if we were building a new childcare service. We have made a lot of advances over the last two decades, especially in the last five years, and Deputy O'Gorman had a role in that as a Minister. We will certainly keep an eye on the areas in Dunmore referenced by Deputy McGuinness. Certainly, the costs will come down substantially from September onwards. We are on track to bring it down to €200 a month, as per the programme for Government commitment. Deputies O'Callaghan and Heneghan raised the issue of Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil brú faoi leith ar an scoil maidir le foirgneamh nua. Is léir gur lorg an Teachta agus na Teachtaí Dála eile sa Dáilcheantar é seo agus táimid ag déanamh gach iarracht é a thosú. Tá an tuarascáil istigh anois. Bhí gá ann níos mó ranganna don oideachas speisialta a chur ar fáil. Is fáth amháin é sin don mhoill, is dócha. Tá na Teachtaí Heneghan agus Brabazon agus daoine eile ag tnúth leis seo le fada an lá anois. Táimid sásta gach aon tacaíocht gur féidir linn a thabhairt. Beidh mé ag faire ar an gceist agus tiocfaidh mé ar ais chucu. Deputy O’Hara referred to permanent teaching contracts. I will check that out. We want to retain primary school teachers. One of the strongest aspects of our education system is the primary system and the quality of our primary school teachers, relative to other countries. Our teacher training colleges, including Hibernia and others, have done a good job in preparing young people for the teaching profession, which is well respected in the country. Secure contracts are a part of retaining that resource and allowing it to thrive. I will check that out with the Minister in respect of the issue of permanent contracts. There are various mechanisms. If someone is a certain time in a particular school, they have to get a contract. I will get some analysis done on that or see what analysis the Department has. Regarding school transport, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, about the issue in Castlebar that was raised by Deputy Conway-Walsh. People talk about common sense and flexibility, but what is done in one area can create a lot of unintended consequences elsewhere, create a precedent or create challenges. The expenditure on school transport has grown exponentially, particularly for special education. Nearly 50% of the school transport budget is spent on special education, which is fine, but it has grown. We have to make sure that we are fair across different systems. I do not know whether the Deputy has raised this issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan. Perhaps she could send the details to him. I will reference the fact the Deputy raised it. I do not know what stage Riverview Educate Together National School in Greenhills is at. Deputy Murphy did not indicate whether it was beginning or at what stage the additional school accommodation is, whether it is at planning and design or whether it has gone to tender. Deputy Connolly had a very good idea. Traditionally, at the age of 16, people are entitled to be out in the world and so on, which is why school attendance never looked at the post-16 period but, of course, school attendance has changed dramatically in 50 years. It is now, as the Deputy said, a welfare service - the idea being what is in the best interest of the child or the young person. There is merit in what would be a radical change from 16 to 18 years, for example, in terms of school completion. I am mindful that they are reaching the age of majority but we intervene with various programmes, including the leaving certificate applied, further education modules, Youthreach and other mechanisms. The idea of an advisory service for young people to say we note they are not continuing but we think they should and what we think they should do is a very good idea. I will talk to both the Minister for children and the Minister for education. Deputy Crowe always comes up with good ideas. Other Deputies spoke about new schools, like Riverview. We have a plurality of education provision. By that we mean patrons can be different. It could be multi-educational, it could be church denominated, like the Church of Ireland or the Catholic church, or it could be Gaelscoileanna. The problem is that it costs a lot and in some parishes we have four different types of schools all looking for extensions. In some areas, the population is growing while in other areas, it is not. It makes absolute sense if an existing school wants to change from being a conventional bunscoil to a Gaelscoil and that we look at that carefully. I am not sure what impact that has on surrounding schools. That happened in my area a long time ago with Gaelscoil an Teaghlaigh Naofa. It was dying out as a school but it became a Gaelscoil and is now flourishing in an area with high-quality education. It would save a lot of money if the existing school provides a need that is not met at the moment in east Clare, as the Deputy said. I will discuss that with the Minister and come back to him. Deputy O'Meara raised an age-old question. I do not want to get too controversial but many kids who come out of Gaelscoileanna are able to speak the language even if they do not go into a second-level Gaelcholáiste. That is because they are immersed in all aspects of the language for the whole day. It can be very challenging if you are just doing Gaeilge for so many hours a week and you are doing French, history and other stuff at second level. The initiatives that took place over the past two decades were to change the curriculum to place a greater emphasis on oral communication skills. Communication skills, both oral and written, are up to 60% or 70% of the paper in the leaving certificate. At junior certificate level, there should be more oral communication. I think has moved substantially towards the spoken word and that needs to continue. Is it a question of how we teach it or is it a question of the context, the atmosphere and the environment in a given school? I think that is more the point. This issue will continue. I will converse with those in the know as well. It would be useful to consult Irish-language teachers about what they feel about this. The leaving certificate is much different from the year I did it or from when I taught. The content of the curriculum is much more student-friendly and communication-friendly than it once was. We never have an oral examination in English, which always bothered me. One of the challenges of oral examinations is trying to organise them. All the industrial relations around organising that at Easter time becomes a problem.