EDUCATION Minister Norma Foley has slapped down claims her €9million plan to ban phones in school is a bad call, insisting: “Kids need a mental break from their screens.”
Opposition parties today tried to poke holes in the €10.5billion pre-election Budget, with Taoiseach Simon Harris boasting: “I seem to live rent free in Sinn Fein’s mind.”
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Ministers queued up at Government Buildings for press conferences to brag about the huge sums of cash they had won for their departments.
In Education, Minister Foley bagged €9million to enable every school in the country put in place measures to stop children using their phones at school.
Schools will be able to adopt their own tactic but the Minister is pushing the idea of buying students electric pouches, which each cost around €30, and lock away the phone for the day.
However, teachers and the opposition have criticised the plan, claiming the money could be better used elsewhere instead of on the Minister’s “pet project”.
Irish National Teachers Organisation chief John Boyle said it “beggars belief” the phone ban was “prioritised over the real needs of our cash-strapped schools”.
And Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon fumed: “Yet again, we see the Minister for Education’s pet project taking precedence over more pressing matters, such as the teacher recruitment crisis.”
He added: “With schools around the country struggling to pay their bills or for basic classroom materials due to shortfalls in capitation funding, it beggars belief that the Government should squander millions on phone pouches.”
But Minister Foley defended the plan and claimed schools are endorsing the change, which she wants implemented by the end of the year.
She said: “We are recognising that schools do actually have acceptable use of mobile phones, but there’s a very different approach taken in different schools so we want a uniform where there will be no access to mobile phones throughout the school day.
“So, we have provided €9million for that, for the purchase of things like pouches or whatever types of solutions, and schools can verify what those solutions might be.
BUDGET 2025 MEASURES – WHAT DOES IT DO FOR YOU?
ONE-OFF PAYMENTS:
- €250 electricity credits – 2 x €125 with one paid in 2024 and one in 2025
- Double week for all long-term weekly social welfare recipients in October
- €300 Fuel Allowance lump sum in November
- €200 Living Alone Allowance lump sum this winter
- Double month of Child Benefit in November AND December
- €400 Working Family Payment lump sum this winter
- €100 Qualified Child Increment lump sum this winter
- Social welfare Christmas bonus in first week of December
- €400 lump sum to selected welfare categories this winter
- Double payment of Foster Care Allowance in December
TAX MEASURES:
- €125 Increase in the Main Tax Credits
- €2,000 Increase in the Standard Rate Cut-off Point
- €150 Increase in the Home Carer Tax Credit
- €150 Increase in the Single Child Carer Credit
- €300 Increase in the Incapacitated Child Tax Credit
- €300 Increase in the Blind person Credit
- Reduction in the four per cent USC rate to three per cent
- Increase in the Rent Tax Credit from €750 to €1,000
- Increase in the Excise Duty and VAT on a pack of cigarettes by €1 – bringing price to €18.05
- VAT on Heat Pumps decreased to nine per cent
- Sea-going Naval Personnel Tax credit extension
“The students can bring the phone in the morning and they can have the phone when they leave but throughout the day they won’t have access to that.”
Calling it a “very positive pro-active step”, she added: “We need to encourage young people to take a mental break from the mobile phones while they’re at school, to acknowledge they’re learning.
“As all the research tells us, their learning improves when they’re not constantly on the mobile phones. And also it fosters a better atmosphere of conversation and friendship making.”
The Taoiseach also fended off attacks on his Budget today as he moved to reassure the public that the bumper spending will not go to waste.
‘SERIAL WASTERS’
Sinn Fein have slammed the coalition as “serial wasters” over the handling of a series of embarrassing overspends on projects such as the National Children’s Hospital and the Dail bike shed.
But pressed on the attack by Mary Lou McDonald’s party, defiant Harris said: “Pot shots, off you go Deputy McDonald, we’re getting used to it now.
“I seem to live rent free in Sinn Fein’s mind and that’s fine.”
