5. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress his Department is making in tackling child poverty. [23835/26]

Sentiment score: -0.04

13. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress his Department is making in tackling child poverty. [28284/26]

Sentiment score: -0.04

The Taoiseach mentioned child poverty. There are a quarter of a million children in forced deprivation, 8% in consistent poverty, and one in five workers is low-paid in an economy that has vast wealth and a budget surplus. The Taoiseach mentioned DEIS plus. In Dublin 15 and much of the constituency I represent, there is huge anger among principals that so many schools have been left off the DEIS plus list. Earlier I raised the two primary schools in Corduff left off DEIS plus even though it is an area where principals have described gangland crime and criminality. I refer also to Blakestown Community School. Not one secondary school in Dublin 15 was included on the list, despite us having the youngest population and huge areas of poverty. All of the orange parts of the map I am holding up are in these areas I am talking about. Blakestown Community School has very disadvantaged status. It has problems with educational attainment, employment issues, criminality and lone parents. A significant number of children live in care or emergency accommodation. There are English language learners, a huge number of pupils of heritage status other than Irish and children with Traveller identity who do not want to identify as Travellers. The school experiences so many of these issues. If we look at the overall population of schoolgoing age, it is absolutely baffling that one primary school, Ladyswell National School in Mulhuddart, and no secondary school made the DEIS plus list. There is a superleague of poverty now that the Government is forcing schools to compete in. All schools should be getting these supports.

Sentiment score: -0.19

21. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach for an overview of the Budget 2026: Spotlight on Disability report recently published by his Department. [28285/26]

Sentiment score: 0.00

Two years ago the parents of Dublin 15 took to the streets, or took to autism-friendly protests in parks, to highlight the dire situation whereby they could not get proper education for disabled, neurodivergent or autistic children. Two years on, we had a special task force in the area, which, as the Taoiseach well knows because it has been raised several times, did a huge review, but that review has not been published. We have 19 secondary school students who do not have school places in the area as well as many primary students. I want to mention one school that has written to me and all TDs, namely Hansfield Educate Together National School. It says it will have to consider putting students on-----

Sentiment score: 0.09

Hansfield, in Ongar. It will have to consider putting students on shortened school days, which is reprehensible. The school knows it will get flak for it but feels it has no alternative. It asked for an ANA and SNA review for an increased allocation and it was refused. It has seven new students who need SNAs. Only one student left. It also has 13 emerging students who need support and it has two autism classes in which at least two students have been told by the professional care team that they need one-to-one SNA support. The Government is not providing basic SNAs to the schools that need them. Why is that?

Sentiment score: 0.04