Throughout its ardfheis weekend, Fianna Fáil, the political party in Ireland, made several promises related to tax cuts and social welfare increases, a drastic change from their critique of Fine Gael’s pre-budget plans the previous year. Highlighting specific plans such as a €10 raise in child benefits, a €12 increase in pensions for the elderly and a possible extension of energy credits, Micheál Martin, the party leader, delineated his party’s vision for the forthcoming budget. He assured that the measures would aid families with low to average incomes and that pensions would see greater than inflationary increases.
In multiple interviews, Mr. Martin elaborated on his desire for child benefit and pension increases along with increased support for energy expenses. When questioned about these budget plans, he confidently suggested that he believed there would be a receptive response to such initiatives.
Aside from fiscal reforms, Mr. Martin also proposed a combined effort by the Department of Health and the Department of Education to limit smartphone usage by pupils during school hours. He hopes that by providing clear guidelines for parents and granting funds to schools to implement smartphone restrictions, they can safeguard the best interests of students.
He predicted that schools might receive funding for pouches that lock away students’ phones for the school day, with only the school authorities having the ability to unlock them. Though the project is still in its early stages, with some sources suggesting that implementation might take longer than expected, others are hopeful that the ban on smartphone usage during school hours might kickoff by the start of the new academic year in September.
Schools are currently encouraged to instate acceptable usage policies dictating the rules for smartphone usage. To avoid disturbances and distractions during school hours, most schools either restrict or prohibit smartphones unless they are required for academic purposes. Particularly in primary education, where there is generally a ban on smartphones during the day, the Department of Education has provided voluntary guidelines backing schools and parents to collectively ban smartphones. This follows an example set in Greystones, Co Wicklow, the hometown of both the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Taoiseach Simon Harris where a voluntary ‘no smartphone’ code was agreed upon by all eight primary schools and parents’ associations, to be upheld until the commencement of secondary education.