Commencement Matters

Coastal Erosion

Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee

I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad. Following the recent snow event and Storm Emma the residents of Portrane are extremely upset and worried about the further coastal erosion in the area. There is a real risk now of many homes being flooded by the sea. If the Minister of State saw the news last night, he would have seen Grainne Hannigan talking about her home which is now in grave danger. Nothing real or practical has been done either by the Minister of State's Department or by Fingal County Council in many years and local residents are angry, frustrated and feel forgotten.

The Minister of State's predecessor, Deputy Canney, visited the area last year and saw at first hand the disastrous situation facing families in Portrane. He gave a commitment to fund the necessary works. I believe the Office of Public Works, OPW, operates a minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme under which applications for funding from local authorities are considered for measures up to €750,000 in each instance. Funding is also available for coastal erosion risk management studies. The funding is made available for areas identified as being at greatest risk of damage or loss of economic assets through coastal erosion or flooding.

I know that Fingal County Council applied for and received funding of €57,800 under the scheme in 2012 to carry out a coastal erosion risk management study of the coast from Portrane up to Rush. However, none of the coastal protection measures assessed and recommended was implemented due to "a combination of negative cost benefit ratio analysis and environment constraints". I believe no additional funding has been sought by Fingal County Council to put any measures in place in Portrane. Perhaps the Minister of State could confirm whether Fingal County Council has made contact with his Department in recent days considering the extent of the damage in Portrane since Storm Emma and the recent snow event took place. Their impact has been very dramatic and if the Minister of State saw the news last night he would understand how dramatic it has been. If he did not see it, I would urge him to contact Mr. Paul Reid, the chief executive office of Fingal County Council, and ask him and his officials to prepare a report on Portrane as a matter of urgency.

The former Minister of State, Deputy Canney, said last year that the funding is there. Homes and even lives are at risk now. The current Minister of State's Department and Fingal County Council need to get the finger out at this stage and help the people of Portrane.

They desperately need it. Action is required at this point not words. They have heard enough over the years. I urge the Minister of State to do something for the people of Portrane.

Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran)

I thank the Senator very much for raising this matter. I am pleased to provide an update on it. I visited Portrane on 26 January this year and met Fingal County Council officials, including the chief executive, local representatives and members of the community to discuss this matter. I fully appreciate the serious concerns of the local people, and the Office of Public Works, OPW, and I will work in whatever way we can with the council to assist it in finding a proper long-term solution to the problems at Portrane.

It is important to note, however, that coastal protection and erosion generally is a matter for local authorities to identify and prioritise the issues along their coastlines. The OPW will co-operate with and assist Fingal County Council, and if a viable solution is identified, the local authority may undertake works using its own resources or, if necessary, apply for funding to my office under the OPW minor works scheme. The following is an update of the progress so far undertaken by Fingal County Council with the approval of funding by my office.

The council applied for and was approved funding of €57,800 in 2012 under the Office of Public Works' minor flood mitigation works and coastal protection scheme to carry out a coastal erosion risk management study of Portrane to Rush. This study was completed and the council has been working on the basis of its findings to identify an environmentally and economically viable solution to strengthen and rehabilitate the dune system at this location. This is the preferred and recommended solution to the erosion problems. I understand that the solution proposed in the risk management report may not be environmentally sustainable and the council is looking at this matter.

Once Fingal County Council has identified a viable programme of works, it may apply to the Office of Public Works for funding. If funding is approved, then it is a matter for the council to progress the necessary works. The Office of Public Works is not currently in receipt of an application for funding from Fingal County Council under the minor works scheme for works at Portrane.

I am aware that the recent storm event resulted in some further coastal erosion having an impact on an individual property. Fingal County Council has inspected the area and will continue to liaise with the householder, the local community and the Fingal coastal liaison group in the coming days. Fingal County Council is actively seeking to deal with this matter and is working hard with the local community to find an appropriate long-term solution to the coastal erosion at Portrane.

Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee

I understand it is a matter for the local authority, first and foremost, but I call on the Minister of State to put pressure on the local authority to act in this regard because it has not done anything since 2012. As he outlined, funding was received to complete a study and that has been completed for some time. The strengthening and reinforcing of the existing dune system has not been done for various reasons. The Minister of State indicated that Fingal County Council is looking at the matter but it has been looking at the matter for a substantial period and nothing has been done. Homes will be lost and lives will be lost. Roads will be flooded. A serious risk to life is posed. We must act now. I call on the Minister of State to contact Fingal County Council and put pressure on it to act. Leaving the situation for a number of years and allowing residents to fend for themselves is no longer acceptable.

An Cathaoirleach

It might also be helpful if local councillors in the area were to work through the local authority to ask the Minister of State to assist rather than having the Minister of State contact the local authority.

Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee

I know two local councillors, Adrian Henchy and Paul Mulvihill.

An Cathaoirleach

We will leave it at that. If the Minister of State has not received an application his hands are tied.

Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran

I have travelled around the country and I have seen a lot of coastal erosion. I have been in Portrane. I identified it as one of the priorities in terms of coastal erosion projects. It is one of the worst I have seen. I met local representative groups, those who are most affected, who are the people I want to protect, and I gave them a clear understanding of the position. One of my officials spoke to the people in one of those houses the night before last. I spoke to a great number of the residents who contacted me directly and I have given them a clear indication that my Department has written to Fingal County Council and also to the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The solution is not simple.

The local authorities are responsible. We did fund it in 2012. The Senator is correct that it has taken from 2012 until now, but I am giving a clear indication that the residents are happy to allow me go ahead and have that meeting to see if I can come to a resolution. If we can do something in Portrane, I believe it could be echoed around the entire coast of the country but we have to start thinking outside the box when it comes to coastal erosion. We cannot have an application going in and being examined and investigated by the planners who then say the proposal does not blend in with the area. I do not want that because we will never see anything done about coastal erosion. For the past 20 years, Governments have ignored the problem of coastal erosion. I am giving the Senator a firm commitment that I am not ignoring it because in 20 years from now I believe coastal erosion will be one of the biggest issues to hit this country. We will lose many properties to the sea if we do not act now.

I visited Scotland recently where I was told that 97 properties had fallen into the sea as a result of this problem. They are thinking the same way as me. I am with the Senator on this issue, but most of all I am with the people. I gave the people of Portrane, as well as Senator Reilly and his colleagues, a detailed response in terms of what I want to see happen in Portrane but I ask for space to allow me sit in the room with them to see if I can come up with a long-term solution for them. I am not saying my Department can deliver but I am saying that one Department is blaming the other. I want to put that to bed and see if a long-term solution can be found for the people of Portrane.

Education Policy

An Cathaoirleach

Tá fáilte romhat, Aire. I ask An Seanadóir Boyhan to outline his matter.

Senator Victor Boyhan

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. I am very conscious of the Minister's commitment to entrepreneurship in terms of education. I see reference to education in his jobs document. I want to keep this issue active. It is very active in certain schools but in others there is not much of a focus on it and we have got to ask ourselves the reason for that.

I have chosen to raise the five "Es", namely, engage, energise, enable, encourage and enterprise. When I talk about engage I mean how we can engage and communicate with younger people about the importance of entrepreneurship, business and all that goes with that. How can we energise, stimulate and be creative and innovative in terms of capacity building among young people regarding enterprise? How can we enable and encourage our young children to think critically and in a bigger way about enterprise and the importance of commerce in their lives? I believe we would find that young people by their nature are very enterprising. I can speak for myself in that regard. I recall keeping rabbits as a young child, brushing the Angora wool off them, sending it to the United Kingdom and getting British stamps in exchange, which I then had to sell to somebody else. Where people are given a yearning and a learning for enterprise they respond very well. I took the time to look at the Erasmus support, advanced learning and training opportunities, SALTO, participation EU programme and there are huge opportunities in that in terms of developing enterprise.

Every school should foster entrepreneurial skills through new and creative ways of teaching and learning and all young people should benefit from at least one practical entrepreneurial experience before leaving secondary school. I cite the mini-companies and mini campus companies.

I do not doubt the Government's commitment in this area. I do not doubt the Minister's commitment or that of the Department but we need to address the reason it is not happening to a greater extent in some schools and is happening in some schools over and above others. It is an important part of education. Education is more than formal learning. There is informal learning also, and we know from experience that one can learn to be an entrepreneur. I would like to hear the Minister's response.

Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Richard Bruton)

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. This is an area in which I have a great interest. When I was Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation during the previous Government's period, I introduced a national strategy for entrepreneurship in Ireland.

This was the first time it had ever been done. This amazed me because, following the difficult period in our history between 2009 and 2014, the teeth of the crash, many people set up their own businesses for the first time. Had they not done so, 100,000 fewer people would be at work. Their impact, even in the worst of times, is significant.

In good times, it is important we nurture entrepreneurship and develop a strategy in that regard. As the Senator rightly acknowledged, part of our action plan for this year is to produce a policy on entrepreneurship. It is important that we do this. We should set a national ambition that it will be part of our DNA to encourage entrepreneurship. One point I learned from my last ministerial job was that a wide range of factors helps a country be entrepreneurial and develop new businesses. One of them is culture and education. Of course, there are the financial services area, access to finance, government policy and so forth. However, the most enduring piece is to have the right attitude in encouraging people to take risks in their lives, cultivate curiosity, as well as the capacity to take on these issues, and that this is done from the earliest stage.

However, against the backdrop of the 2026 target to have the best education and training service in Europe, this is one area in which we need to do better. Ireland is one of the few countries in Europe which has not explicitly developed an educational strategy for entrepreneurship. This needs to be corrected. To be fair, our education system, along with the reforms we have made to it, has greatly cultivated creativity, problem-solving and the sorts of skills which are important to entrepreneurship. These are now embedded in our curriculum. Increasingly in the junior cycle, there is much more emphasis on self-led learning where one is encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit in the learning activity itself.

We have a wide range of excellent initiatives of mini-companies and local enterprise offices cultivating school competitions. There is much extracurricular work in encouraging young people to test their skills in an entrepreneurial environment. We can do more, however. We intend to develop guidelines for schools. Clearly, much can be done within the curriculum itself, along with the promotion of extracurricular activities. We can ensure education recognises the importance of risk-taking in its various curricular activities. It must also increase the exposure to entrepreneurs at an appropriate age. The transition year is a particularly important year when people can get exposure to different experiences. This too should be developed.

I am looking forward to working with experts in the field and practitioners at the coalface to develop a policy which will set us in the right direction for the coming years.

Senator Victor Boyhan

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response.

An Cathaoirleach

It is nice to be appreciated, Minister.

School Accommodation Provision

Senator Martin Conway

I thank the Minister, Deputy Bruton, for coming to the House to deal with this important issue.

Doolin national school has 91 students. This is set to increase to 95 next September but I suspect it will be even more. The school has a great principal and team of teachers. I have always been impressed by the school's ethos and the staff's dedication to learning. The principal is out on her own in her dedication to her students and the work she does to develop an interest in learning among them. The school has applied for an additional classroom. This application is not just reasonable and important, but essential and critical. One class with 25 students is in a classroom designed for between 12 and 15 students. This is unacceptable and is a health and safety issue, as well as being unfair to the students and the teachers.

The school has submitted two applications to the Department for funding for an additional classroom.

Both applications were submitted in 2017, one in the early part of the year and the other in the latter. I have been making representations relentlessly to the Department for some time on the issue. When we made representations last October, we received an acknowledgement. However, on 8 December we received a letter from the Department stating it had no application on file. Clearly, the information that had come from it was not correct because there was an application on file.

A contract has been signed for a direct provision centre in Lisdoonvarna which is about three or four miles from Doolin national school. I have no doubt that some of the children who will live in the centre will be seeking educational advancement in the school. As September is only a number of months away, the classroom must be built during the summer. Funding must be sanctioned as a top priority based not just on all of the information I have given to date. I have also corresponded with the Department on the critical need for the project which has been amplified even more by the fact that the direct provision centre will be opened in Lisdoonvarna and that Doolin national school may be called upon to assist in meeting the educational needs of the young people who will stay at the centre. I am looking for a commitment from the Minister that the funding required will be provided as a matter of urgency in order that the tender documents can be prepared and the work done during the two-month summer holidays period to enable the classroom to be ready by September.

Deputy Richard Bruton

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I apologise to him if the Department wrote to him with false information, as he indicated. There is, of course, an application from the school that was made originally in December 2016. At the time it was made the teacher complement was three mainstream teachers and one special education teacher. At that stage it was determined that there was no deficit of mainstream class accommodation in the school. However, the school was expanding and granted provisional sanction for an additional teaching post which was made conditional on the required enrolment being achieved last September. Having refused it on the grounds that there were just three mainstream teachers in the school, the Department is now in a position where it will review the application because I understand, as the Senator noted, that the school did reach the enrolment threshold of 90 pupils. The Department is reviewing the application in the light of the confirmation of the enrolment figure. Given what the Senator has said, I will ask that the review be accelerated in order that we can have a response for the school as quickly as possible.

Senator Martin Conway

It is a welcome acknowledgement by the Minister that the school has reached the number of pupils required for the provision of additional accommodation. What is important, as the Minister will understand, is a timeline because the construction industry is doing exceptionally well and it will not be easy to find a company with a gap in its schedule to do this type of work. It needs to be booked in advance. I appreciate that the Minister will ask his officials to accelerate the review. Perhaps he might also indicate the time bubble at which we are looking for when a decision will actually be made?

Seanad Éireann debate - Tuesday, 6 Mar 2018