Funding Provided for Seven Local Schools Under Summer Works Scheme
I warmly welcome the announcement by the Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan T.D., that seven schools in Dublin South will undertake school improvements this summer.
I warmly welcome the announcement by the Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan T.D., that seven schools in Dublin South will undertake school improvements this summer.
I warmly welcome the announcement by Ruairí Quinn T.D., Minister for Education and Skills, that a further eight schools in Dublin South will be able to undertake school improvements this summer as part of the second round of the Summer Works Scheme.
I warmly welcome the awarding of €206,900 by the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to seven primary schools in Dublin South. This will enable the schools to establish book rental schemes.
I want to commend Minister Ruairí Quinn for securing Cabinet approval for drafting of the Admissions to Schools Bill.
I warmly welcome the announcement by The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., that seven schools in Dublin South will be able to undertake school improvements this summer.
Seven local schools will receive money to improve and upgrade existing school buildings. This first round of funding will allow these schools to carry out small and medium scale building works across three categories of projects - Gas, Electrical & Mechanical.
I recently visited Scoil Mhuire in Ballyboden to help raise their third Green Flag, which the school was awarded for water conservation.
Earlier this month, I met some young people from the constituency at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. The projects were all very impressive. Above, you see me trying out an exhibit from Andrej Pacher of Rockbrook Park School. His exhibit was a ‘General Use Augmented Reality Project (GUARP)’.
Below, I meet Kate Lally and Lauren McCauley from St Colmcille’s Community School whose project was entitled ‘The Fear Factor: Who is more daring?’
Once again, today, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has taken what can only be described as a leadership role in the debate on the future of education, particularly of primary school education. He appears to be ahead of the debate in many cases, certainly ahead of many people who purport to speak on behalf of church interests in this vital area. The Archbishop has described the situation with regard to primary school education as a near monopoly of control by the Catholic church and has said that it does not reflect current realities. He has called for a debate, the kind of debate for which many Members have been calling for two years.
When Deputy Mary Hanafin was Minister for Education and Science, she declined in this House to set up a national forum to consider these questions. The subject was raised last week in the House. Has the Minister for Education and Science been persuaded to come to facilitate a debate on this crucial issue? The matter arose again in the context of the recent developments on the Ryan commission report. However, I have no difficulty in decoupling those two issues if that would make people feel more comfortable in debating the matter. The issue of the church’s control and management of primary schools throughout the State requires debate in its own right, with or without the Ryan commission report.
There have been some developments in this regard, for example, a development with regard to VEC involvement in primary schools in Dublin city. The issue arises again and again. Can we now have a full and comprehensive debate on the issue that takes note of the fact that the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has said that the current position is a historical hangover and is, essentially, a monopoly. To his credit, he said the position is detrimental to the possibility of maintaining a true Catholic identity in Catholic schools. That is the Roman Catholic view on the issue.
When this question is debated in the Seanad, on radio programmes and elsewhere, people always say it is a question of choice. We are all in favour of the maximum amount of choice being afforded to citizens, parents and children, but resources must also be considered.
In any country or economy, scarce resources will dictate what level of choice we can provide or can vindicate for parents, whether religious, non-religious or multidenominational education.
This afternoon, the Labour Party launched ‘Cherishing Children’ - our new manifesto for children. As the Party Spokesperson on Children, I attended the press launch with Leader Eamon Gilmore and our by-election hopeful in Dublin Central, Senator Ivana Bacik.
In these economically difficult times, it is very easy for a government to pull investment away from those who need it most - our children. What this policy document does is outline a core Labour belief that investment in children is fundamental to a better economy.
According to the OECD, Ireland is at the bottom of the league for early
childhood education, with only 2 per cent of three year olds in statesubsidised pre-school. This compares to 100 per cent in Italy and France.
The Labour Party fought the 2007 General Election with a commitment that if elected, we would introduce one year of free childhood education for every child. Although Minister for Children Barry Andrews announced in the last budget the introduction of such a scheme, it’s implementation has been haphazard and with 7 months to go until the scheme is launched, we still have not been given the full details of the scheme. We don’t know the curriculum. We don’t know if they have enough staff to cope. This is worrying for parents and providers.
If the country is to be economically vibrant again, investment in children is essential. One of the focuses of ‘Cherishing Children’ is on how the boom that we had never guaranteed an improvement in a child’s well-being. We built homes and new towns, but not the schools to cope with the surge in population. Only last week I visited Holy Trinity NS which spent €125,000 last year on prefabs. On Friday I will be attending St Colmcille’s Junior School which has been waiting reconstruction despite the fact it was promised by Fianna Fail in the last general election. I’ve raised their situation in the Seanad previously:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSDTMbnOgBE]
This government has withdrawn funding for school books, has reduced investment in playgrounds and has deemed building footpaths an optional investment. They withdrew support for the Cervical Cancer Vaccine. Cherishing Children seeks to place children at the heart of Labour policy at local level, at national level and at European level. We will seek to reverse the decision on the Cervical Cancer Vaccine. We will seek to replace anti-social behaviour at nighttime with sport and recreation. We will support the setting up of a pan-European missing children’s hotline.
Studies have shown that if the State invests in children, they will receive multiples of that investment back in tax, less social welfare and a successful knowledge-based economy. Labour strongly believes in this.
More :: Click here to read ‘Cherishing Children’ (PDF)
More :: See more photos from the launch on the Facebook page
Yesterday, I was pleased to attend the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in the RDS and meet with pupils from some local schools. I was thoroughly impressed by the high standards the students have set themselves this year, and local students were particularly inspiring!
I managed to catch up with students from Wesley; Our Lady’s Grove Secondary School; St. Columba’s and Pobail Scoil Naomh Choilm Cille.
Above is a photo of myself with Danielle Ronan from Mount Anville Secondary School. She explained to me her project on producing Siamese Fighter Fish!
More :: View more photos of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the Labour Flickr Site