Minister for Education Norma Foley has defended her plan to spend €9 million on mobile phone storage pouches in secondary schools, saying it is a “serious health and welfare issue” for thousands of students.
Sinn Féin has branded the expenditure as “grotesque” and an “inexcusable” waste of money in recent days. The party has tabled a Dáil motion calling on the Government to reverse the decision and this will be debated and voted on next week.
“I do understand that the €9m in funding for this scheme is a significant once-off investment,” said Ms Foley in response to queries from The Irish Times.
“However, secure, safe and lockable storage solutions such as pouches will be owned by the schools and can be reused into the future. When you break the cost down further, it works out at about €20 on average for 400,000 students across more than 720 post-primary schools.
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“The funding for the scheme stands at less than 0.01% of the overall €11.8 billion education budget. This education budget includes €75 million in additional funding for schools to assist them with day-to-day running costs, 1,600 more special needs assistants, 768 more Special Education Teachers and free schoolbooks for 940,000 pupils, with the final phase of the roll-out of free schoolbooks to Senior Cycle students. And that is not forgetting the extension of hot school meals to all primary schools by the Government.
[ Phone pouches: What school principals, teachers and students are sayingOpens in new window ]
[ Mobile phone pouches will not be ‘forced’ on any school, Harris saysOpens in new window ]
“This is a serious health and welfare issue for 400,000 young people. This is a time for action, not a time for Sinn Féin border hopping on their policies,” she added.
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DUP Minister of Education Paul Givan announced a similar scheme in Northern Ireland earlier this year.
Ms Foley said, “were it not such a serious matter, I would be somewhat amused by the cross-Border roaming policy being adopted by Sinn Féin”.
It comes after Taoiseach Simon Harris said that mobile phone pouches will not be “forced” on any school, principal or child and equate to about €20 per student.
Mr Harris said the idea was not a mistake and had come from several schools that had already introduced pouches for students.
Mr Harris also criticised the “hypocrisy” of Sinn Féin’s position on the pouches.
The Fine Gael leader said while the Opposition liked to pick at the issue, “the absolute mortification when they’re [Sinn Féin] actually doing it in Northern Ireland, where they’re in Government”.
In the North a pilot phone pouch scheme was announced by Mr Givan in September, accompanied by new guidance to schools on restricting the personal use of mobile phones during the school day.
Mr Givan told the Belfast Telegraph that £250,000 had been set aside to cover the cost of the pilot scheme in 10 schools, which is scheduled to begin in 2025.
Under Stormont rules, only matters that are significant or affect more than one government department go to a meeting of the four-party Executive for approval.
This was not required in this case, so the other parties — Sinn Féin, Alliance and the UUP — were not asked to approve it.
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said that “while we support efforts to reduce mobile phone usage and tackling digital harm in schools, we believe that the £250,000 allocated for the purchase of phone pouches by the Education Minister, would be better invested in schools to help them provide emotional health and wellbeing support to children”.
The North’s Minister of Justice, Alliance leader Naomi Long, questioned the cost saying “each mobile comes with an off switch which is absolutely free”.
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