At no point over the past week did any member of Sinn Féin speak about the impact the blockades had on ordinary people - sick people trying to get to hospital appointments, workers trying to get to work, families visiting relatives or business owners losing customers. Instead, they spoke about how the Government was not doing enough. Not once did they criticise the blockades which caused such misery to people across this country. Their response today is to table a no confidence motion in a Government working hard every day to deliver on commitments we made to the Irish people. Since being appointed as Minister for Education and Youth last November, I have been working with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and delivered a number of important programme for Government commitments. These will have a real impact on our education system, help students and young people and support teachers and school staff. I will inform the House of what my Department has been doing over the past number of months. On special education, we announced the opening of four new special schools and detailed the roll-out of the new education therapy services which will see therapists working with children, teachers and SNAs in our special schools. To help tackle educational disadvantage, we announced the biggest ever investment in a single year, of €48 million, in the new DEIS strategy and the DEIS plus scheme, which includes targeted supports for 121 schools with the highest level of educational disadvantage. We have begun accepting applications for supports for survivors of abuse in residential institutions such as industrial schools and reformatories. To ensure our education system continues to deliver world-class outcomes, we launched the national conversation on education and the national convention on the future of education. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for children, young people, parents, educators and wider society to help Ireland's educational system for decades to come. I could go on to speak about the €7.55 billion in capital investment. I have full confidence in this Government.

Sentiment score: 0.16