Jen Cummins
Dublin South-Central · Social Democrats · Ireland
“However, there is an advantage if their family can buy them one and they can continue their school work at home. It is not good enough to say that schools can make up their minds about that. The Department needs to actually decide and give guidance like it does for other things.”
“Circular 0032/2017 has been in existence for almost ten years and in most parts is not enforced. There is no point in issuing a circular if nothing is going to be done about it. I am delighted the Minister has said there will be a working group to review and hopefully strengthen that.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely. These are the summer months when parents start to think about how we will we stretch our finances to autumn, get everything that we need to ready and then still maybe take a holiday, organise summer camps, etc. The motion is, as stated, very timely.”
“I see it as an absolute disgrace that such a number of people need that support. I welcome that that funding and support is there for those families but I am still shocked that this affects 233,000 children, which is a lot of children, aged between two and 18. I think it goes up to 22 in some cases. There is a digital divide.”
“When parents were told, they had six weeks to pay but most people do not have such a flexible budget to allow them to pay the €160 or however much it is. When things are being reintroduced time needs to be factored in for that. There was an increase in the cost of school transport for families.”
“I will go through a few of the things that I think still present challenges. The capitation grant for schools was increased last year but has still not reached a level which will mean that schools are fully funded. It has not reached the level where it needs to be. In addition, it does not take into consideration the level of inflation.”
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“The academics coming from abroad and those here need to be welcomed and we need to have the infrastructure in place. I am glad the Minister has clarified that it is not about pitting one against the other, because I was a little bit nervous when I read that. I was thinking that we cannot be attracting others if we have deficits here, but I am glad the Minister clarified that.”
“I agree it is really positive when we have those returns, as the Minister outlined. I know that is one element of looking at education. I want to be clear about what I am saying with regard to attracting people from abroad to come here. I am not saying this is not a good idea. However, when the headlines are focusing on how much money is going to be spent on each of those people, it can read as being a little unbalanced. I totally agree that when we have international talent and academics coming here, we are able, with the students in the universities, to see the best that we have internationally. The Minister is right; in this world, which is becoming smaller in a way but is quite divided, we need to try to find ways that we can all work together.”
“The Minister wishes to attract talent from abroad but we cannot lose the talent we have already. Students going abroad is also a difficulty.”
“I acknowledge there is additional funding of €50 million in the budget for 2025 under Funding the Future. It is great to hear there is an additional €150 million. The Irish Universities Association has welcomed the multiannual approach the Minister's Department has outlined. Investment in education only stands at 2.8% of GDP. It is among the lowest in the OECD, which has an average of 5.7%. I am concerned the financial constraints compromise the quality of education and the well-being of students and staff and it seems contradictory to be attracting foreign talent from abroad when our domestic institutions are in dire need. I am happy that legislation is going to be progressed with the heads of Bill. I urge the Minister to try to do this as quickly as possible. We will lose talent.”
“Some of Ireland's third level institutions are facing a critical shortfall in core funding, something repeatedly highlighted by the OECD, the European Commission and our universities. Despite rising student numbers and growing demands in staff and infrastructure, core funding remains well below the required level to ensure quality, accessibility and efficiency. Can the Minister outline what steps his Department is taking to address this core funding gap, and will he commit to a roadmap towards significantly increasing core investment in our higher education sector?”
“The Liberties litter pickers go out on the weekends to make sure the place we live is tidy, clean and free of rubbish and Trees for Tenters advocates for more native trees in an historic part of our city. There are cleanup crews in all parts of Dublin South Central. People are working from the ground up, taking it seriously. The Social Democrats has always championed a rights-based model of environmental protection. We are delighted to celebrate biodiversity this week and to see the number of people who have come to the Chamber to talk about it. It belongs to everybody. The Camac and Poddle rivers run through that neighbourhood. We must make sure those waterways are protected and maintained and that there are no more incidents like the one earlier this year in Inchicore when a structure fell into the river.”
“I do not know if the Minister of State is a birdwatcher but I am delighted to say that on 10 May, the swifts arrived to Dublin South-Central. We were absolutely delighted. A group of us were out mapping trees to see how many trees were there, and then the swifts arrived. Maybe they have arrived down the Minister of State's neck of the woods as well. Dublin South-Central is a constituency that has, particularly in the Dublin 8 area, the lowest level of greenspace per capita in the country. We have to work hard to keep areas in the city centre with biodiversity. I might mention some of the fantastic work that is happening. For example, Bloomin Crumlin has an orchard project and the Inchicore Environmental Group does vital work along the Camac river to restore the water quality and habitats.”
“The financial penalty for leasing farmland because it is not deemed "actively operated" is a clear injustice to rural families, who are already doing their best to hold things together. How can we claim to value farming families while allowing these loopholes to gut intergenerational livelihoods? As a member of the Social Democrats, I would like to see the abolition of means testing for carers, while recognising their role as essential workers in our health system; full pay parity between section 38 and section 39 workers; and a statutory timeline for the rolling out of universal home care.”
“It means making home support a legal entitlement, not a postcode lottery or a vague aspiration based on "available resources". It means finally ending the cruelty of the current means-testing regime, which also punishes low- and middle-income families for their compassion. In 2024, we saw a 7.4% increase in home support hours. However, let us not think that is brilliant - it is brilliant - without bearing in mind that there are still more than 5,500 people on waiting lists, with rural communities hardest hit. My own mother was reliant on those services until she died last year. It was very difficult to get them. I want to personally thank those people who cared for her and who are caring for others, those paid professionals who are like gold dust. We have a fair deal scheme that is increasingly unfair.”
“It is fundamental to who we are as humans that care is valued and appreciated. This country runs on care. It is not the rhetoric of fiscal reports, budget surpluses and all those things that holds our society together, but the invisible, often unpaid, work of carers. Right now, they are exhausted, under-resourced and increasingly demoralised. The system is broken. It is one that penalises people for doing the right thing or staying home to look after a loved one, for stepping into gaps left by the State and for providing essential services that prevent hospital overcrowding and delay the need for residential care. We in the Social Democrats have long advocated for a rights-based model of care. That means putting people first, not processes.”
“I also welcome today's motion on carers. In fact, in the late nineties, I was a carer in London and I was a carer in Dublin when I returned after living abroad for a while. At that time, I noticed there was a significant difference in the level of training and support that carers were given by the agencies I was working for. I was happy to do that work. I was very young at the time, and it was a great introduction to being humble and being a carer for somebody else and putting their needs before mine. Today, there are so many people in Ireland who are carers. I am thinking of the young carers we met recently in the audiovisual room and what they do in our community as they care for siblings, parents and other family members. Caring touches on every single family. Nobody will not be touched by it in the future. Some of us will need care.”
“I hope it will engage with us further, so we are able to make the Inchichore BusConnects situation less difficult for everybody.”
“Every public representative of Dublin South-Central and the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area is there and we are putting pressure on. When those three bus routes, 13, 68 and 69, were first going to go to just one bus twice every hour, the pressure that the group put on the NTA and public representatives to keep representing them has meant that it is now going to be every 15 minutes. When I met the NTA recently, it said there will be a second route which is going to go pretty much the same way, but it is also going to be more frequent, which is great. The missing link is going to Thomas Street. That is really the difficulty. Not missing out on access to that part of the city is what they are looking for, and the frequency of buses is also a concern. I thank the Minister of State and the NTA.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I welcome his comments and knowledge of the area. We are all very proud in Dublin 8 of Inchicore and the historic part of the city that it is. We absolutely welcome the fare reduction, particularly for young people and students. It is excellent, especially if someone was to take three buses within the two-hour period. It is fantastic and we do welcome that. BusConnects is welcome. It will make people's lives much easier and travelling will be more straight forward, etc. As I referenced earlier, however, smaller details are being missed out in the wider scheme and these are important. I acknowledge the work of former TD Joan Collins on this issue. She is still out every week working so hard on this and I am happy to support her and that group.”
“The other difficulty with that Inchicore BusConnects issue is that the people coming out of the CIÉ works, which is on an estate in that area, will no longer be able to go left, which cuts them off from going to Ballyfermot and the N4. They will have to take a circuitous route, which adds way more time to their day and is totally illogical. They have also said that the NTA has said it has engaged with this community group, but they do not feel engaged. All of these engagements happened over Covid time, which was quite a difficult time to engage people. People were possibly not as engaged, or they missed it. However, the NTA needs to try harder, and we are asking the Minister of State to intervene and help in any way with regard to Inchicore.”
“I suppose that is why they have called their group Connecting Communities. The other issue BusConnects has is that it will put pressure on parents who are sending their children to school. There are very few secondary schools in Dublin 8 and there is no Gaelcholáiste or multidenominational school, so parents send their children outside that area. A number of parents contacted me recently with regard to some children taking three buses in the morning to get to a Gaelcholáiste in Rathfarnham and some getting two, depending on where they live in Inchicore. That is an extremely long day for a student in secondary school.”
“They do not feel they have been listened to. They are out marching. They were out last weekend and will be out again. Public representatives are sponsoring posters so this community group can demonstrate how difficult this move is for them. We have written to the NTA. We are not getting an answer and I am asking for some intervention. It is not that the group or anybody in Inchicore does not want BusConnects to go ahead because it is great to have a bus service that will be there. Unfortunately, when you are trying to rationalise how a bus service is going to go for the whole of Dublin, bearing in mind that route will go out to Kildare and other commuter areas, what happens is that the small details are lost. This is an example of the small details being lost. Those people who are reliant on an old part of Dublin will be disconnected.”
“Some 40% of the people who live in that area do not have a car, so they rely on public transport. The people I am meeting with are a generation of people who live in Bluebell and Inchicore and rely on Thomas Street for their shopping, services, hospital and churches and the social aspects of their lives. I am sure the Minister of State does not know Inchicore as well I do, given that he is not from Dublin South-Central. However, the bus will go along the Conyngham Road at the side of the Phoenix Park, which is miles away from Thomas Street. That then means those people have no access to it. Carrying your shopping and having to take two buses is not suitable for a young person, a middle-aged person and certainly not an older person. The NTA has said it has consulted with people, but people do not feel consulted with.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to bring forward this matter. It is of deep concern to the people of Inchicore, a number of groups in fact. One of the groups I have been working with is a called Connecting Communities, which has been working on this issue and is looking to have the Minister of State's support. As a resident of that constituency and a community advocate, there is a serious impact from the proposed changes under the BusConnects programme, specifically the rerouting of the 57 bus. There were two buses that used to go from Bluebell and Inchicore, down Tyrconnell Road and turn into Thomas Street. I have raised this in the Dáil before and we are not getting any further with the NTA, so I am asking the Minister of State for his support on this.”
“I commend all the families throughout the country who are bringing the attention of politicians to this issue. Everyone in the Dáil and Seanad hears about this all the time. Let us keep fighting on their behalf. It is just not good enough.”
“We have been a State for so long. Why can we not get this right? This number of children is not a surprise. They were born. They have needs. They do not just magic down from the clouds and land here and have assessments of need that must be done. We need forward planning. We need staff who are trained. For the third time in the Chamber I make the point that we have heard so often that we will have more college places next year for therapists but I have not heard that it is definitely happening and I really want to know if it is. If these children get an assessment of need and they get the therapies, we still do not have enough therapists. Will I get an answer next week on whether there are enough people training in third-level institutions?”
“The Disability Act 2005 clearly sets out that children should have an assessment of need starting within three months of application and concluding within six, yet, with this Government in its second term, it is still not working. There are still missed targets, persistent failure and no meaningful accountability. Why is it necessary for a child to sit outside this Dáil for 50 hours to bring shame on what is happening here? No family should have to fight the fight they are fighting. They have enough to deal with in their own daily lives. They should be getting their basic rights. The Government is pointing to funding and pilot schemes. I do not know about anyone else here but I am sick of hearing about pilot schemes. We should know what we are doing at this stage. We are not a fledgling. We did not just come about yesterday.”
“It is nothing short of a national scandal that over 15,000 children are still waiting for an assessment of need. I know these numbers have been read out several times today but I want to keep saying it because it is an absolute scandal that we are saying there are 15,000 children waiting for an assessment of need and that over 90% of those assessments are not being completed within the legally mandated six-month timeframe. In Dublin South Central at the end of 2024 there were 1,652 children waiting over three months for an assessment of need. From speaking to parents in my constituency, I know the level of frustration, heartbreak and need there. What are we doing as a country if we cannot get an assessment of need for a child when they most need it? When a child receives an assessment of need, where are the services thereafter?”
“It is deeply disrespectful and actually insulting. We will vote in support of this Bill. We are voting for the future of workers, so they do not have to beg for recognition they should have a right to. The Social Democrats believe in a republic where dignity in the workplace is not negotiable and where people in every sector, including education, healthcare, retail and transport, are not treated as cost lines, but as the backbone of the country. That is why I will be supporting this Bill.”
“In further and higher education, staff are battling against precarious contracts, not being paid equitably and not having fair conditions. Lecturers are not being treated fairly and equitably and they have the responsibility of educating our next generation for the great creative thinkers and the people who will bring our economy forward. That was talked about extensively yesterday as being one purpose of education. I would argue that is one element, but not the be all and end all. In further education, teachers are on hourly contracts that do not recognise the hours of preparation put into every one of those classes, as well as marking assignments and work that comes back. These sorts of contracts are outmoded and should not be allowed. Those educators not only have to fight for their students but for pay parity and respect.”
“I welcome the school group in the Public Gallery, and I hope they enjoy their visit. Unions also fight for reasonable class sizes and supports for students with additional needs, and to ensure every worker has proper conditions such as parity of pay and a right to pension parity. Education unions have always looked beyond their own members' welfare, and yet too often their voice is sidelined. We have seen in our schools that temporary contracts and precarious work still exist. We have seen it during pay restoration struggles. We have seen it when Governments have tried to divide teachers into tiers. If unions had not stood strong and been organised, their voice would not have been heard and there would not have been any progress.”
“I am proud to stand here today as a member of the Social Democrats but also as a trade union member and activist for decades at this stage. I thank People Before Profit for introducing this Bill. At its heart, it is about fairness, dignity in the workplace and the fundamental right of workers to a collective voice. This is not a radical idea, but a democratic one. When workers organise, they are not just protecting wages or conditions. They are advocating for a safer, more sustainable and more equitable workplace for everyone. In the education sector, which I have a particular passion for, unions have been vital in defending not just teachers, SNAs, school secretaries, school caretakers and school completion programme workers, but also the quality of education itself.”
“Could there be more spaces so that pressure is taken off at that level because enjoyment of learning in the leaving certificate is dying a death, given how there is so much pressure? We need proper contracts for staff in universities. Precarious contracts are not acceptable to any worker and they are certainly not acceptable in any institution where we are trying to educate future generations, so I would love to see an end to that and the Minister's vision of how that would work. We need funding for third level to ensure we make our system the best that we can. I wish the Minister the best of luck and look forward to working with him.”
“It is about critical and creative thinking and ensuring we live in a society where there is empathy and where we can build social cohesion around what we want to see in our society. I remind the Minister that the focus on economic enablers is one aspect but there are many others. I do not want to lecture him but I want to put it on record that there are other reasons for education. I acknowledge the Minister's optimism and I welcome his ambition. Again, I will talk about funding. We need to broaden access to third level education. Last week, we spoke about course for occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. I would love to see that for September. I would love to discuss the CAO system and how we are putting so much pressure on our leaving certificate students to get into third level.”
“It is about funding; nearly everything is. I welcome making Ireland a destination for global researchers and talent. Education here is excellent but we are losing PhD students and other students to other countries because they cannot afford to stay here. The cost of university here is significantly higher than in a number of other European countries. There are students who will take a course in another language in another country and we will lose them. They will leave for their undergraduate education and it will continue for postgraduate education. Like others, I am a bit concerned about the notion of education as an economic enabler. I echo what Deputy Connolly said. Education does concern the economy, but education is about learning.”
“I have been contacted by a number of people about the hidden costs that are not covered when they are on placements. I would love to see how this can be resolved for those students. I am talking about student teachers and student nurses. One student explained her difficult situation to me. We hear repeatedly about students having to buy things. This is the hidden cost of university. Having worked with young people from a disadvantaged background, I know it is not that they are unable to get there because of points, which is a whole other issue. It is that, when they are there, those costs are preventative. These students do not have anyone from whom they can get that money. I welcome the Minister’s intent to revive the programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI. This was last looked at over a decade ago.”
“Regarding the disconnect between ambition and implementation when we talk about students, the Minister spoke very passionately about the future talent pipelines. Having worked in the school completion programme and the bachelor of education course in DCU, I can say that a significant amount of pressure is being placed on students. I will speak about those students I lectured on the bachelor of education course. They worked very long hours on the course, travelled home, worked at the weekend and tried to complete the volume of work they needed to do. Anybody here who has worked in third level education will know that there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done but because of the student contribution and the high cost of accommodation, students have no other option than to work at the weekend.”
“The Minister spoke about AI, semiconductors and life sciences and rightly highlighted the ground-breaking work happening in our universities, such as Professor Conor Ryan’s AI-designed silicon chip at UL, which is an excellent example of the wonderful work that takes place in our universities. The Minister referenced Funding the Future but there is a €307 million annual shortfall in core higher education funding. That gap is not new and was not a surprise to the Minister upon assuming his new role but is something we need to get on top of. It has a trickle-down effect on every single thing that happens in our universities. I look forward to seeing how the Minister will tackle that.”
“I wish the Minister the very best of luck. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to today’s debate on the power of higher education, research and skills as economic enablers in a changing world. I echo what previous speakers have said about dropping further education. It is such a valuable part of that Department and I have seen at first hand how further education has changed lives in the communities in which I have lived and worked for a number of years. Yesterday, the Minister delivered his keynote speech at the Irish Universities Association's Future of Ireland seminar. He presented a vision that was ambitious and encouraging, where Ireland led on innovation, skills and research in a volatile global landscape, but can we see concrete plans for how this will happen in a sector that has struggled for a number of years?”
“No child in 2025 should be sitting at the back of the classroom excluded. No child should feel they are not part of their school community because they have different beliefs. In a multidenominational school, everybody is equal, everybody is treated with respect and all beliefs and none are respected. This is simply what we are asking for. Go raibh maith agat.”
“We are saying that we hear and believe them and we are with them. Voting against the motion will dilute the proposals. There will then be excuses. We do not accept that and we do not believe the public will either. It is time to stop managing expectations and to start meeting them. Let us build an education system that reflects who we really are and aspire to be. We are asking the Government to withdraw its amendment and support our motion so genuine choice for parents in their child's education is truly acceptable. We have a wonderful education system but it can be better. I have said this so many times on the floor of this House. We really have high-quality education. We have excellent schools and excellent teachers, SNAs and people working in them, but we need more choice so that people do not feel excluded.”
“There should be a transparent and community-led mechanism for school reconfiguration and not one controlled by the very patrons who benefit from the status quo . There should be a citizens' assembly on the future of education because a system-wide reform must belong to the people. These are reasonable requests and reflect what parents want across the country. People supporting this motion will see if the Government does support it. I know it has an amendment submitted. I echo what Deputy Farrelly has said in urging the Government to withdraw the amendment. Not removing the amendment will demonstrate that the Government is not accepting our motion. We are trying to reflect what the parents around the country are asking us for. They are asking for more spaces in schools and for more choice.”
“Parents are being forced to send their children to schools that do not reflect their values. Teachers are still being asked about their religion in job interviews, to teach things they are not comfortable with and to do a certificate at university so they can teach in a State-funded school. This motion does not ask for anything extreme. It simply calls for a real and deliverable target of 400 multidenominational schools by 2030 and for any new school being opened to be a multidenominational school. There are already quite a number of denominational schools, as we and several other Deputies outlined. It also calls for faith formation to happen outside core school hours and respects all beliefs. There should be an end to religious discrimination in hiring so that merit and not belief determines who teaches our children.”
“Ask any school principal and they will tell us the year is going to fly by and they have a load of work to do. Surveys need to happen immediately or it will not be possible to collect the data. This Dáil term will be over by the time the data is collected and put into effect. We heard a lot today about choice and diversity but we cannot achieve either as long as we cling to a model that puts religious patrons in charge of our children's schools and does not give choice to every parent. We welcome and acknowledge that denominational schools have served communities. We know this. There is a very strong history of denominational schools being excellent for the children in those schools but there are still children sitting in classrooms who are being excluded every day.”
“It recites statistics, restates old commitments and assures us that things are moving, but it also avoids a central truth that everyone in this Chamber knows: change is happening far too slowly and families across Ireland are being left behind. Despite all the carefully worded acknowledgments in the amendment, families are still struggling to access schools that reflect their beliefs, communities that want change are still being left in the dark and year after year the Government promises more diversity but delivers more delay. We welcome that there are now going to be two surveys. We are a little bit concerned, however, that there is just constant talk of surveys but the surveys have not gone out. They were meant to go out in September 2024. It was the same in January 2025. The school year is nearly over.”
“We brought forward this motion because the current system is dominated by religious patronage and no longer reflects the reality of the Ireland we live in today. It is a diverse and modern Republic, yet over 94.5% of our primary schools are under religious control. It is not balanced, not inclusive and not a choice. Our motion is not an attack on denominational schools at all, and I want to make that very clear. It is about providing choice, and that includes if you want to send your child to a multidenominational, nondenominational, interdenominational or denominational school. That is okay by our motion. The Government's amendment gestures towards progress.”
“In the course of that time, we opened up 40 new multidenominational schools. We saw the 40th anniversary of Educate Together. We also saw schools through the Covid-19 pandemic. As an employee of City of Dublin ETB, I saw first-hand the establishment of community national schools and I have worked with many schools that are multidenominational and religious patrons throughout this country. Yesterday in the audiovisual room we heard from a parent who went to a multidenominational school 30 years ago. Now she has twins and unfortunately does not have a school place that represents her family. She is still fighting. Her parents fought, she is fighting, and we are all continuing to fight. In my constituency, in Dublin 8, the Educate D8 campaign is fighting tirelessly to ensure that they have a multidenominational school in their area.”
“I thank everybody who participated in today's debate. More importantly, I thank all those parents, educators and campaigners across the country who continue to fight not for privilege but for parity and not for special treatment but for choice. This has been going on for 50 years. I have been a campaigner for multidenominational schools since 2007. As a family of a minority religion as well as strong believers in that religion as a private matter, we needed a school where we would be welcome. Griffith Barracks Multi-Denominational School was that school. I became involved with the patron of that school and the board of management of the school and then I became a director of the board of directors of Educate Together. I served as chair of that board of directors for five years.”
“Every child deserves a school that respects their family's beliefs. It is time to make education in Ireland truly inclusive. I urge all Members of this House to support this motion.”
“To recap, simply put, the Social Democrats are looking for the Government to reinstate the abandoned commitment to have 400 multidenominational schools by 2030, to adopt a policy that all new schools are opened under non-religious patronage, to remove faith formation from the school day with it to take place outside of school hours in line with families' beliefs, to create a clear and independent mechanism for patronage change via the establishment of a statutory framework for changing school patronage with independent oversight to avoid conflicts of interest by existing patrons, to amend the Employment Equality Act and to establish a citizens' assembly to make recommendations on the future of the education system, including how it might better reflect and serve a more modern, inclusive, and diverse Ireland.”
“The Government need to establish a citizen’s assembly, which is the gold standard for discussing topics that are complex and multifaceted. A convention, which is what is being offered, is not what we are looking for. We are looking for a full citizens' assembly.”
“The Government's schools reconfiguration for diversity process lacks transparency, ambition and community empowerment. Patronage divestment is stalling due to poor community engagement, lack of clarity in the process and no obligation on patrons to co-operate. Schools wishing to reconfigure face financial disincentives and logistical hurdles, creating systemic inertia. No worker should be discriminated against on the basis of their religion or lack of religion. Teachers and education staff currently face religious discrimination because they are not protected under section 37 of the Employment Equality Act. This needs to end. There is no excuse for this in 2025. We must also remove the need for student teachers to have to do a religious certificate to teach in State-funded schools. This is divisive.”
“This would mean that those who want sacramental preparation would do it outside school time and it would be the responsibility of parents and their respective religious bodies to organise this. In 2025, it is absolutely not acceptable that any child is excluded from part of the school day because they are not participating in faith formation. A recent survey by the Irish National Teachers Organisation found that just 4% of teachers believe that preparing students for sacraments should be the responsibility of primary schools. More than two-fifths of them believe that faith formation should not take place at all during school hours. The removal of religious discrimination is important to ensure that no child is an outsider.”
“A total of 60% of parents who were polled said they would prefer to send their children to a multidenominational school, as opposed to 10% who would prefer religious schools, yet 94.5% of schools are religious. Although no new primary schools have opened in recent years, the Social Democrats are asking that any new primary State-funded school opened should be multidenominational to provide parents with real choice - exactly what is at the heart of this motion. There is no need to open any more religious schools; there are enough of them. The removal of rule 68 for primary schools was a positive one. It was a rule that saw religion as being the most important part of school. It saw that religious education and spirit permeated every part of the school day. A further step would be to remove faith formation in school time.”
“This imbalance does not reflect the rich diversity of beliefs and backgrounds in modern Ireland. This motion calls on the Government to do some very simple things that would have a significant impact on the education landscape. The first is to reinstate the commitment in the programme for Government in 2020 that called for 400 multidenominational schools. This seemed to have disappeared in the programme for Government 2024. Parental choice is a constitutional right and this must be upheld. The glacial pace of change means the Government will fall well short of meeting this target. This is bearing in mind that 400 multidenominational schools will not address the massive demand for school places every year.”