Mattie McGrath urges education support amid COVID delays
Mattie McGrath spoke about pressures on the education system during the COVID-19 crisis, backing a motion and calling for sensitivity, consultation and reduced bureaucracy. He highlighted delays to school building projects, constraints from Irish Water, the need to use community halls, concerns about class sizes and mental-health supports.
Support for the motion
McGrath said he supports the motion put down by Deputy O'Leary and called for sensitivity and vitality in responses to the pandemic. He emphasised the need for consultation with principals and school communities, and thanked departmental official Derek and Mr Foley for assistance on specific cases.
Concerns over school infrastructure and prefabs
He warned that building delays and OPW bureaucracy mean planned construction may not be delivered in time, leaving many schools reliant on prefabs. McGrath said the construction industry is busy and cited specific stalled projects, including an amalgamation where a contract was awarded last November but work has not advanced.
Use of community halls and practical solutions
The TD urged authorities to "think outside the box" and make use of community halls across the country as temporary classroom spaces. He called for action to reduce class sizes where possible and for practical measures to be implemented quickly to address classroom capacity.
Administrative and utility barriers
McGrath raised issues with Irish Water preventing new connections and limiting capacity in some areas, creating further obstacles for reopening or expanding school facilities. He described pressures on boards of management, principals, teachers and parents as they cope with mental-health and physical-health fallouts from lockdown.
Tribute to Peg Hannifan
He closed with a personal tribute to Peg Hannifan, praising her work establishing adult-education opportunities in Tipperary and her lifelong service to the community through education, the arts and voluntary groups. McGrath described her as inspirational and noted the lasting impact of her work on access to further education.
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Goed maith a goethe, caan gheilach, let's go and call it, Minister Foley is gone, I know, but I want to miss Minister Foley and indeed the two other Ministers, Mr Madigan and Minister Robert, the very, very best, I look forward to working with him. Look, it's been a traumatic trying time in the education system, it's been a trying time from the cradle to the grave really, but from the play schools, the Niinwa's and the play schools, and indeed the national schools, the secondary schools and third level, the amount of angst that has caused the children, the parents, the families, the carers, and above all, especially the mental needs children, who have, we have the July provision, I know, I want to support the motion here tonight and thank the Deputy O'Leary for putting it down, Minister, we need sensitivity, we need vitality, but above all, we need consultation, principals, and I know one of them very well, many of them very well, but one in particular has been on to me, every week during the lockdown, is it Kevin Langton, of Cromwell College in Carrick and Sure, they've been locked in there and trying to deal with all these fallouts, mental health was only one of them, there were many, many other areas, physical health, you name it, and the concerns and cares, they now have a very limited window to get everything in order, why the money is available certainly, but I know how the bureaucracy of the OPW about buildings and delivering buildings and architects and all that, that's not going to happen, the community halls throughout the country must be used, that they're great community halls now often supported by government, but the enablers or the community people have put them there, we must be, think outside the box, we need the class sizes, of course we do reduce, we need all those issues, but my worry is now with this COVID, and with all the money spending, with all the money spending, class sizes, the teachers have been lobbying, and Noreen Muldowning, and many others, for you know, the principals to get support, there's huge stresses on the school boards of management, Penns Council, and the teaching staff, and the Penns, and we need those support, but we need to cut out the bureaucracy as well, so as I said, with the class sizes, you know, the facilities, some of the buildings are appalling, appalling, and the prefabs, which we were hoping to get rid of, now it looks like there'll be nothing but prefabs, but with this kind of rushed situation, Irish water, yes, big issue, many places, they can't connect any more capacity, because Irish water won't allow, look, it's very important, and I'm here to support you, so I'm embracing the new plan, I just want to be able to get answers, and I want to thank Derek in the department, for his help as well, Mr Foley has helped me out too, with the amalgamation of Care Bison Girls National School, two wonderful schools, are waiting with three decades, and are still not over the line, even though the contract was awarded, last November, delays like that are frustrating, the construction industry is very busy, which, look, as I said, we want to work with you, and support you, Desh Statt is in Tipperary Town, in schools, and in Fedotts as well, in many places, waiting for that, and it's such a wait, wait, wait, drip feed, and it's such, so difficult, and the nomad I have left, if you'll allow me your indulgence, that's called here, look, a woman, I mean, buried in Tipperary in the morning, Ban Lauder, Ban Arling, Ban Starule, Peg Hannifan, a wonderful woman, God rest her soul, and she's up there tonight, definitely if anyone is, she set up with a few others, the whole adult education system in Tullis Town, Tullis-Zela, adjacent to the famed, you know, Simple Stadium, and she helped so many people, that was her motto, and she lived to help people, with the arts, and with people, with Vincent de Paul, and with many other areas, wrote three, five books actually, and one gone to the Pentonian last week, as, I think, on Friday, and she died on Saturday, but she gave a tremendous service, and the Hannifan family did, but she was inspirational in teaching, and we've had many visionaries in schools and education as well in the past, and we had many of the sisters as well, and the clergy, who don't get the recognition they deserve, but Peg was, as I said, an institution in her own right, and the support that she gave to less well-off people, and when people couldn't get second and third level, not even second level at the time, she set up this for them, and set it out there that they could get back into education, and could do their leave-in-sat, and could get on in life, and maintain friendship with all those people for the decades. So, a rush day, go over and I'm dealing with Peg Hannifan, go over and I'm a good.
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