Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 6 Nov 2024

Teachta, your government is a serial waster of the public's money. Your waste leaves people shaking their heads in disbelief. The lack of accountability angers people. No accountability for the 336,000 bus shelter or bicycle shelter, nor for the 1.4 million euro security hut, nor for the doubling of costs for modularity. housing, and that's before we even mentioned the children's hospital. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil squander, taxpayers hired to earn money, and when you're caught out or when you're challenged, you just shrug your shoulders and dismiss the public's anger. Perhaps though the most mind-boggling example of your waste is your decision to spend 9 million euros on phone pouches for secondary school students. That's 9 million euros on phone pouches. Contrast this with your failure to fund schools correctly, as they struggle to keep the lights and the heating on. Only 10 million additional money for that. Worse still, you could only find less than 3 million euros for youth mental health services that are on the floor. Taoiseach, when you were called out for this waste, you claimed that this 9 million pouch investment was a once-off cost. In fact, the big message in Minister Norma Foley's article on the journal.ie defending the government's decision was, 9 million euros for phone pouches is a significant once-off cost. It was a significant once-off investment. But that's not true. As we have learned from documents obtained by my colleague Pierce Doherty through Freedom of Information, what Minister Foley failed to tell the public that there will, in fact, be a cost of almost 2 million euros for these pouches annually. Government knew this, and yet she continued to peddle the spin that this was a once-off investment. To make matters worse, Taoiseach, these documents also showed that government was presented with several common-sense options for dealing with mobile phones in schools. Option 1. Phones to be left in students' bags, with students not allowed to use them during the day, cost to the public purse, 0 euros. Option 2. Phones handed in at a central point, cost to the public purse, 0 euros. Option 3. Placement in student lockers, cost to the public, 0 euros beyond the cost of the locker. So, you turned down three common-sense solutions that wouldn't have cost the public a single red cent. And instead, you have gone with an option that will cost the taxpayer 9 million euros initially, and then a further 2 million euros every single year. You actually couldn't make this up. The incompetence of this is off the charts. And dressing this up Taoiseach as a mental health measure is just so insulting to young people in mental health crisis, and blocked out of the services, care and support that they desperately need. What this shows again, is that your government can't be trusted to spend the public's money wisely. You can't be straight with people about your waste, and you refuse to be accountable for your mess. You are there as no money for your money. There is no money that will cost you for your money. That's what you are paying for. There is no money that will cost you for your money, but it will cost you for your money. You can't take your money that costs you for your money. Why do you and your Government continue to tell people that the €9 million spent on phone pouches is a once-off cost, when you know that this is not the case? Can I appeal to you to scrap this scheme and invest that money in mental health services for our young people? Thank you, Deputy MacDonald. For raising this issue, I would make a number of points. Especially when you would like to talk about the state of our economy in terms of the use of taxpayers' money, you do leave out a number of facts. You do leave out the fact that this is a country running a budget surplus, that we have managed to put aside billions of euros to protect people from future economic shocks, and I think that decision is looking even better today than it was yesterday in light of global issues. You forget the fact that we are actually able to give people back some of their own money as well. So I look forward to debating this Government's record in terms of managing our economy and managing the public purse versus your policies and your spend it all, leave nothing for the buffer times or leave nothing if there are any transatlantic trade shocks, a policy that quite frankly looks utterly foolish and ridiculous today. Second point I would make is this. The issue of phone pouches was not invented in the Department of Education or in Government or by any political party. This came about, Deputy, by listening directly to school principals. I am sure you, like me, listen to radio. I am sure you heard the students on Morning Ireland a couple of days back after this announcement. I am sure you heard them talking about the benefit they had found from these pouches. I am sure you have met the school principals, including the one in De La Salle College in Churchtown, where they introduced these self-locking pouches after staff reported an increase in disruption and how time-consuming it was, and how the principal highlighted how this initiative had improved the social skills of the students and had seen an increase in participation in extracurricular activities. This is a government listening. You talk about listening, it is important to listen to people on the front line. We have listened to school principals, we have listened to teachers, and do you know what we have listened to? We have listened to the students. It is the feedback from many students, and I am sure they will be in touch with you today, schools that have benefited from this initiative. That is where the idea came from. This is not an obligatory or mandatory measure. Nobody is going to demand a school take school pouches. If a school wants to avail of this, it is about 20 quid per student, a 20 euro investment, a 20 euro investment in the mental health and wellbeing of a student. Please do not say to me that it is in any way insulting to link this to mental health. It is not me linking it to mental health, it is the young people themselves. This is about a government listening and responding, because in schools right across the country, different schools have tried different initiatives to deal with smartphones. You are right, some schools have adopted the suggestions that you have made, other schools have tried different approaches, and it is important that we help and assist in relation to that. The next point I would make is this. You suggest that this all happened in isolation, that this was the only investment in education, where this government has invested a huge amount in education, including in the most recent budget. We have allocated €12 billion to the Department of Education. It is going to help students, parents and education staff, including €51 million to extend the free school book scheme to students, benefiting 940,000 students. We have increased the capitation rate, which you have called upon us to do. We have done that. We have increased the capitation rate from €200 to €224 per student in primary schools, and from €345 to €386 per student in post-primary school. This 12 per cent increase will assist schools with increased day-to-day running costs, because I know running costs are a real issue. In addition to that, we have provided €45 million in cost-of-living supports for all primary, special and post-primary schools in the free scheme to help them deal with costs. We have employed more special needs assistants, more special education teachers and more teachers in general. The most breathtaking thing about your presentation today is that in Northern Ireland, where you hold the Department of Finance, you are rolling out a similar initiative, but it is costing a hell of a lot more. You talk in billions when it suits you, but then you penny-pinch on the essentials. You did increase capitation for schools by €10 million. The capitation money is what keeps the show on the road. Ten million euros isn't enough, and well, you know it. Ten million euros for that, to light and heat schools, and then nine million euros, and an additional two million euro year-on-year for phone pouches. I listen very carefully to people, Taoiseach. I have not met one teacher who approves of that use of public money. I have not met one family. I have not met one taxpayer out on the beach who thinks that that was a smart use of money. As a matter of fact, people are outraged by that. And all the more outraged when they discovered that a mere three million euros from all of your billions, three million euros for youth mental health services, at a time when you hear a lot from young people, their families, their educators, about how desperately people need these services, and the fact that they wait and wait and wait. I asked you to confirm, and you might do so for the Dáil, that actually nine million euros is the initial outlay on these phone pouches, and that it will in fact cost the taxpayer two million euros annually for this scheme. Can you confirm that as a matter of fact, Taoiseach? I have the documentation here. Taoiseach, please. Is it your position that the phone pouch is bad here and the phone pouch is good in Northern Ireland? If it is not your position, will you call on the Sinn Féin Minister for Finance in Northern Ireland today to speak to her executive colleague and stop the rollout of the phone pouches in Northern Ireland? Because in Northern Ireland you have already spent a quarter of a million pounds sterling on the provision of phone pouches. Foam pouches are clearly good in Northern Ireland for the children, but not good down here. Then you should really stop, then you should stop, then you should stop, then you should stop. I am just asking, I am allowed to speak if that is okay. That is the first point. The second point is, you say you have not met these people, but you must not be listening to the radio. There have been school children on the radio talking about the benefit in their school, there have been school principals. I reference a school principal there in De La Salle in Churchtown. There are references on Tuesday 5 November, which I think is yesterday, an article by Ken Fox of six different schools who have been contacted about their experience in the pouches, all of them describing it as very positive. This idea is coming from schools. It is not mandatory, it is not obligatory, it is government listening to teachers, listening to principals and providing them with another option. It is €20 per kid to help support their mental health if the school wants it. is not obligatory.