Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom a rá gur uafásach an scéal ar fad é an méid a tharla i gCiarraí thuaidh maidir le cúrsaí leigheas intinne. Is drochscéal é. Is féidir liom a rá go bhfuil sé uafásach. At the outset, the report is not published yet. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, will bring a memorandum to the Government this afternoon and will publish the report in its entirety in the aftermath of the Cabinet meeting later this evening. The first principle in medicine is "Do no harm". Harm has been done here in the treatment of several young people in north Kerry. The Minister was anxious for open disclosure meetings with the families and those affected to be the first priority, in advance of the publication of any report. That has happened, and simultaneous to that, both assessment and proper treatment are being provided to put those young people on a proper pathway. It was important from the perspective of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, that in the interests of the children and families, they would be communicated with directly in advance of publication of this report. My understanding is that letters were issued to all the families yesterday to arrive this morning. That was a clear instruction, and I think it was obviously the correct thing to do. The families will continue to have access to a clinical support team and a dedicated open disclosure helpline. The Minister will visit Kerry tomorrow and Friday to meet and engage with families affected by the findings in the report, with CAMHS staff and with the regional health forum. In addition, after the situation in south Kerry, the Minister commissioned a national audit. The HSE's prescribing audit and the Mental Health Commission did not identify any concerns relating to prescribing practice in services outside of Kerry. Dr. Colette Halpin and about ten consultant psychiatrists undertook this review. It took longer than anticipated, and there will need to be an extended look back in terms of absolute certainty for all cases. I also understand there is a referral to the Medical Council in respect of what has transpired here. I listened this morning to the mother of one of the young people concerned. It was a harrowing account. The issue spoke to overmedication, a lack of a multidisciplinary approach and a lack of complementary therapies or therapies other than medication and psychiatry, which is a fundamental issue. The HSE serious incident team was established to deal with this. This is absolutely unacceptable. The same approach will be taken with all the families involved, as was taken in terms of south Kerry with an apology from the HSE in the first instance, but also to engage with each family. The more fundamental focus and priority is on the well-being of all involved and that there will be continued supports for them.
Sentiment score: 0.04
Fundamentally, there has to be accountability from a clinical perspective. That has to happen. We do have a Medical Council and we do have a framework. I do not want to prejudge anything here but clearly there are issues in relation to that dimension of it. We have to be very careful at the same time. The Deputy mentioned a case there. That is, fundamentally, a clinical decision-making situation. I think it is wrong for Dáil Éireann to attempt to adjudicate and, if you like, ordain what should happen where there are very serious clinical issues at stake, for example in the case of the person the Deputy mentioned. I have read the background note to that case and I do not want to discuss it in public. There needs to be some sense of order here in terms of what lines we cross. Are we now going to be dictating the optimal clinical situation for someone to have surgery in every individual case? That is not tenable.
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It is not tenable and I do not think we can as a Dáil but that is what the Deputy was suggesting in that last exchange.
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You just did and I think it is wrong-----
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I am sorry but you referenced the case. I am happy to discuss that case with you offline-----
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I am happy to answer questions.
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First of all, we need to have some degree of objective assessment of what actually has happened in terms of investment in education. Investment in education has increased dramatically over the past number of years - of that, there is no question. Just go through the number of extra teachers in our education system over the past number of years, which is quite significant. We have had a sustained reduction in pupil-teacher ratios over the past years. We have had record increases in capitation grants to schools, most recently in the last budget. In terms of special needs assistants, in 2020 there were 16,000 SNAs in our schools; in 2021, it went to 18,000; in 2022, it went to 19,000; in 2023, it went to 21,000; in 2024, it was close to 22,000; in 2025, it is 23,000; and by September of the next school year, it will be 25,000. That is not cuts and that is not a reduction in expenditure in education. That is expansion and an increase. Could we at least agree that? The issue then becomes the deployment of those special needs assistants to the children most in need. That is an overall increase. By September of 2026, we will have had an increase of 8,775 special needs assistants in our schools. This is a 54% increase. By any yardstick, that is a fairly dramatic and substantial increase. Of course parallel with that, needs have increased and challenges have increased in our schools. With regard to the deployment, there should be regular reviews to make sure we are targeting the children most in need and that the children most in need get the optimal services. The idea that there would be no reviews, and I am sure the Deputy is not suggesting there should never be a review-----
Sentiment score: 0.31
Yes, I was just making the point. I presumed the Deputy did not and that is what I was saying. If the Deputy accepts that there are reviews, then reviews can work both ways because of changing need. A lot of schools get increases when those reviews are done. I think the mistake made here is that there has not been a comprehensive review for quite a number of years. The NCSE endeavouring to correct that in one year is, in my view, not the correct approach. That is why it has been paused. We will ensure the Minister, Deputy Naughton, the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the officials will engage with the NCSE. We will also engage with the schools. Many of those have already appealed, as they do, and we will try to resolve these issues with the schools on an ongoing basis.
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You said we were cutting back.
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Obviously, any school where a need has been identified for additional SNAs will get that additionality.
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In terms of the SNA-----
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In terms of the SNA redeployment scheme, the Deputy must know that the Department has been working with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and education stakeholders, including Fórsa, to develop an SNA redeployment scheme to retain experienced SNAs in our schools. A circular on this new redeployment scheme is being finalised and will be issued in the coming weeks. There are no cuts, obviously - no school is losing any SNA - this school year.
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I am glad, although I might have misinterpreted her, that the Deputy agrees with us on the macro picture. In other words, she agrees that there has been very significant expansion of SNAs.
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That is something that needed to be said on her side. I appreciate that she has acknowledged the expansion that has occurred.
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I fully accept that. We have paused it. I fully accept what has happened in that regard.
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The next-----
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There is a-----
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With respect, I know the full needs of every child. They extend beyond the physical. It is a bit much of a question to ask but we will leave it at that. I am a parent as well. I was a teacher. My fundamental objective in politics is to realise the potential of every child in this country. In terms of SNAs, the 2014 circular is clear on the sensory needs and the role of SNAs in relation to that. A workforce planning exercise is under way in consultation with all stakeholders as to the optimal role of SNAs. In terms of communication and so forth, in my view therapies are essential. We do not have an adequacy of provision in therapies in terms of communication for every child. That is why we are bringing in a school-based therapy service to have an optimal approach to enabling children to be in a position to communicate properly and effectively from early in their lives and to get help in that regard. That is why the language classes came in many years ago. Across the country we have specialist language classes that do very well in helping children with language difficulties early in life and reintegrating them into primary schools. We need more of that. Fundamentally, we need more therapists and multidisciplinary teams in our special schools and, ultimately, in our mainstream schools. I committed to this at the outset of this Government. I made it an election red-line issue that we would have therapies in our schools. There was resistance in different quarters. In my view, the health-based approach that was there from 2013 onwards was not optimal and did not succeed in terms of progressing disability. There are ongoing challenges and issues around that. We said from the outset there would be therapies in our schools. Special needs assistants have key roles in respect of facilitating the participation of children with intellectual, physical and sensory disability in our schools. It should and must be part of a multidisciplinary approach, ultimately. To me, that is the approach that ultimately will benefit children. I think taking therapists out of special schools in the last decade was a mistake. That is why we are correcting it now with a schools-based approach. I do not want to conflate therapies in total with the SNA issue, but SNA numbers have expanded. It is governed at the moment by the circular of 2014. There is a workforce plan for the SNA role. That is not completed in terms of clarity, direction and consistency within the entirety of the workforce. There has been a lot of progress in terms and conditions for special needs assistants over the last number of years and that will continue.
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We have increased the number of SNAs.
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You did not, actually.
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Sorry. We have increased significantly the number of special needs assistants. I would welcome a proper engagement on this subject. The fallback position from Opposition all the time is "more, more, more, more". We should look at optimal deployment of all resources in our education system and at outcomes. There have to be reviews. Surely people are not suggesting we will never have reviews. There are limits-----
Sentiment score: 0.26
I am answering the question. The Deputy's attitude is that we can go to 26,000, 27,000 and 30,000 and it will be fine. That is not the full answer. In every area of policy, that is her answer - no analysis, no attempt at evaluation. Are we doing the right thing? Is this getting the optimal outcome for a given child? We need multidisciplinary approaches; that is my view. We need more SNAs. We are employing more SNAs. There will be up to 25,000. There will be 1,700 extra by September 2026. That is an increase.
Sentiment score: 0.03
Certainly, we can have an holistic, integrated approach to what is horrific criminal activity and behaviour in terms of presenting, enabling or facilitating access to hardcore pornographic material for children. That is illegal and against the law, and it will be prosecuted. If, by “integration”, the Deputy means integration with the Courts Service or decisions of judges, we cannot do that because we have the separation of powers. The Deputy knows that. We cannot dictate to judges. We can enact laws and there is work under way in the area of online safety, particularly for children. It is a whole-of-government priority. We want young people and children to be safe online. It was interesting last year that when we brought in the pouches for schools and allocated about €9 million to it, there was an outcry in the Dáil. The Opposition attacked it. I cannot recollect whether Deputy Tóibín attacked it, but the Opposition said it was a waste of money and the wrong thing to do. The Deputy probably did attack it. The point is-----
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It actually has worked. It is only one of many things we have to do, but maybe if people stopped the knee-jerk necessity of attacking Government for the sake of it because, from their perspective, they think it is the right thing to do, we could focus on the issue of the protection of children. In that instance, it was to give space to children to allow them to concentrate and socialise within the school environment. It is very good. It has worked and it is a good idea. It is something that Northern Ireland did before us on a pilot basis. We need to do more in terms of age verification and we are looking at integrating an age verification tool into Ireland’s digital wallet. A voluntary pilot is envisaged in the coming months. Coimisiún na Meán is now at the heart of our online safety framework. It has been established fairly quickly in relative terms as our online safety and media regulator under the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022. Europe has enacted the Digital Services Act and the EU terrorist content online regulation. They all form part of our framework. We have an online safety code implemented by Coimisiún na Meán and further work is being done on that. With regard to the European Union, we work with our European Union colleagues in terms of the regulatory environment to make sure we have the strongest possible frameworks in place to protect children. Admhaím gurb é an rud is tábhachtaí ar fad ná leanaí a chosaint. Níl aon amhras go bhfuil dainséar ann. Déanann sé damáiste do leanaí. Caithfidh muid gach aon iarracht é sin a stopadh.
Sentiment score: 0.09
The Deputy spent the first three minutes attacking and condemning us and the last minute saying that if we are going to do something to protect children, we had better be careful not to do it. He has his reasons on civil-----
Sentiment score: 0.24
On civil liberty grounds, he is now saying not to do that. Perhaps we need proper engagement in the House. In first three minutes, the Deputy spoke about how terrible we are in not protecting children and so forth. We are coming up with an age verification tool to protect children and he is telling us not to do that if it has implications for civil liberties and so on. That is basically what he is saying. However-----
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On the alternative, I am not clear about the feasibility of banning mobile phones in their entirety. We did it in schools and the Deputy opposed it.
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We did, and the Deputy opposed it.
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The Deputy opposed the policy of enabling schools to ban mobile phones in schools and now he is telling me we should ban them all over the country, and for every child-----
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Is the Deputy talking about children aged 12, 14, 15 or 16? Where is the cut-off?
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Sixteen years of age. Okay.
Sentiment score: 0.11
That will be easy to implement, I would say.
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Come on.
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