The Government has “continued to peddle the line” that the €9 million phone pouch initiative for schools is a once-off cost, when it will cost an additional €2 million every year, the Dáil has heard.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald highlighted the controversial funding as she criticised government spending and “lack of accountability” for the €336,000 that went on the Leinster House bicycle shelter, the €1.4 million for a security hut and the spiralling cost of the National Children’s Hospital.
But Taoiseach Simon Harris rounded on her in his last leaders’ questions of the 33rd Dáil and said Sinn Féin in government in Northern Ireland was rolling out a similar phone pouch scheme that was “costing a hell of a lot more”. The phone pouches are aimed at preventing students from accessing their phones during the school day.
Ms McDonald raised the issue during leaders’ questions when she described the phone pouch spending as “the most mind-boggling” example of government “waste” when schools “struggled to keep the lights and the heating on, with only €10 million additional money for that” and just €3 million for youth mental health services.
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She said Minister for Education Norma Foley had described the phone pouch funding as a “significant once-off investment” but had “failed to tell the public that there will, in fact, be a cost of almost €2 million” for the pouches annually.
“Government knew this, and yet you continue to peddle the spin that this was a once-off investment.” She said her party colleague Pearse Doherty had obtained the information through a Freedom of Information request.
She said the Government was presented with several options costing nothing including phones being left in students’ bags; phones being handed in to a central point in the school; or phones being placed in students’ lockers.
Ms McDonald said she had not met one teacher who approved of the plans.
But defending the Government’s spending, Mr Harris said “This is a country running a budget surplus that we’ve managed to put aside millions of euro to protect people from future economic shocks. I think that decision is looking even better today than it was yesterday in light of global issues.”
He said the issue of pouches came about “by listening directly to school principals”. He added that students and schools had already publicly expressed their satisfaction with the initiative.
Mr Harris said Sinn Féin was currently operating a phone pouch system in Northern Ireland, where it had already cost £250,000. “So phone pouches are clearly good in Northern Ireland for the children, but not good down here,” he said.
Separately, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns claimed the Government had been “tried, tested and failed” on the delivery of housing and disability services.
During angry exchanges with the Taoiseach, Ms Cairns said Tánaiste Micheál Martin had said the country had turned a corner on housing but it had in fact hit a “dead end”. She also criticised the €85,000 average increase in the cost of housing over the past four years.
Reiterating her party’s resolution that it would only consider entering government if there was a senior minister for disability, Ms Cairns said Mr Harris had established a Cabinet sub-committee on disability but it achieved “nothing” and the only guarantee “is waiting lists and excuses”.
It was brazen for Fine Gael to say it had provided answers when parents were forced to drive for two hours to special schools, said the Soc Dems leader.
In response, Mr Harris said his mother had to “drive two hours to get my brother to school and I won’t take any lectures from you about the lived experience”.
This Government had created jobs, was giving people back some of their own money through the budget and provided increases in child benefit, along with free schoolbooks and hot school meals, he said.
Mr Harris acknowledged Ms Cairns’s proposal for a senior disability minister had “merit” but said he would like to see “how it works”.
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