The Taoiseach has attacked Sinn Féin “hypocrisy” over opposition to a mobile phone pouch scheme for schools.
Simon Harris said he was “absolutely shocked” after receiving a letter from Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald in opposition to the scheme when he found out a similar scheme is in place in Northern Ireland where Sinn Féin is in government.
DUP Education Minister Paul Givan, who is in the joint government with Sinn Féin, Alliance and the UUP at Stormont, announced the move in Northern Ireland earlier this year.
The Irish Government allocated €9 million in the budget this week for a fund for schools to purchase pouches for mobile phones for pupils aimed at minimising disruption.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has suggested the money for the scheme “could have been better directed” in schools.
Speaking to the media during a visit to Blessington, Co Wicklow, on Friday, Mr Harris emphasised there should be a “sense of perspective”.
“We unveiled a budget worth about 105 billion euro, and what we’re talking here is 20 quid per kid, or thereabouts,” he said.
“No pouch is going to be forced on any school, forced on any principal, forced on any child, but Minister for Education Norma Foley and the government have quite rightly worked with schools and prioritised the issue of safety around mobile phones, social media, online media, cyber bullying and the disruption that the mobile phone can have to the school day.
“This idea came from a number of schools who had already rolled out this project.
“We have over 700 secondary schools in Ireland. We have over 370,000 children in those schools and when you look at that… it is a very small investment of just over 20 quid. If a school wants it, they can have it, and if a school doesn’t want it, the school doesn’t have to have it.”
He went on: “There also needs to be no hypocrisy, because you can imagine my absolute shock after I received a letter from deputy Mary Lou McDonald.
“She was outraged about this. She was absolutely outraged. You could have knocked me down with the letter when I saw only a few hours after receiving it, that the Stormont Executive, which is led by Sinn Féin, have, funnily enough, purchased with taxpayers’ money, pouches for mobile phones in Northern Ireland.
“This is an effort by some to distract from a budget of over 105 million euro.
“So you can understand the opposition likes to pick this issue, but you can understand the absolute mortification when they’re actually doing it in Northern Ireland, when they’re in government. It’s hypocrisy.”
TUI president David Waters said it is “frustrating in the extreme” that the funding “was not directed towards tackling the teacher recruitment and retention crisis or enhancing the pastoral care framework available to students through more posts of responsibility”.
He continued: “The teacher supply crisis sees schools around the country having to limit subject choice to students, and it beggars belief that the required remedies are being ignored.
“Specifically, this money could have been better directed towards enhancing the teaching allocation to schools so that they could offer more full-time jobs in a sector where just a third of teachers secure such a contract upon initial appointment.
“Alternatively, it could have been directed towards providing a scheme of incremental credit for those teachers currently teaching in jurisdictions such as Australia and Dubai who are understandably reluctant to return home to an education system that does not acknowledge their overseas teaching experience.
“Another spending option would have been posts of responsibility. The nine million euro spend is over double the four million euro set aside for additional posts of responsibility across both primary and second level for next year. These posts are critical in promoting student wellbeing.
“All education partners acknowledge the various challenges posed by mobile phones, but the reality is that schools already have effective policies in place that successfully restrict their usage.
“It is clear that the teacher recruitment and retention problems that have blighted the second level sector in recent years will continue and in all likelihood will worsen as a result of continuing Government inaction.”
