The Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has branded the Budget allocation of €9 million for mobile phone pouches in secondary schools as “a terrible waste of public money.”
Speaking in Co Monaghan, she said: “I think it’s unthinkable and unfathomable that the Government would think it’s appropriate.”
She described the phone pouches as “just the latest example of a Government with a lot of money, a lot of resources, and no real clue how to spend it wisely in the long term, or, for that matter, in the short term”.
The ‘Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free’ proposal was included in Budget 2025, which was announced earlier this week.
The idea behind the storage initiative is that once the phone is in the pouch at the start of the school day, it cannot be accessed and then it is opened later in the day, in a way which is controlled by the school.
Education Minister Norma Foley has described it as a positive, proactive step that would allow secondary school students to have a mental break from their phones and allow them to learn without distraction.
But the Sinn Féin leader said that the move was “ample evidence from Simon Harris and his Government that they are serial wasters of public money”.
“I mean, we’ve seen the most expensive bicycle shed in the world, the security hut, not to mention the Children’s Hospital and modular homes”.
She said that just €10 million had been provided for school capitation, adding: “everybody knows schools across the country struggle to keep the lights on, to keep the building heated.
“We know that children are crying out for mental health services, for special education services.”
The Taoiseach has rejected claims that the decision on phone pouches was a mistake, adding that “no pouch is going to be forced on any school, principal or child”.
Mr Harris said he believes there “needs to be a sense of perspective”.
“We unveiled a budget worth about €105 billion and what we’re talking here is 20 quid for a case or thereabouts.
“Of course, people like to talk about a big number, €9m. We have over 700 secondary schools in Ireland, we have over 370,000 children in those schools and when you look at that, this is an investment in each of those children.”
“It is a very small investment of just over 20 quid and that’s what we’re talking about here,” he added.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin described social media use as one of the biggest challenges facing children in Ireland.
“A genuine effort is being made here to deal with a very serious public health threat to all of our children, and let’s get serious about how we debate it.
“We are either serious about the mental health of children or we are not,” he said.
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Government leaders label SF claims ‘hypocrisy’
Mr Martin said that Sinn Féin attack on the initiative was ‘superficial hypocrisy’ as the party is part of the executive that approved it in Northern Ireland.
The Taoiseach also accused Ms McDonald of “hypocrisy” after she wrote to him calling for the plan to be abandoned immediately.
In the letter, Ms McDonald called the decision a “scandalous waste of public money at a time when so many schools are struggling to pay for heating and to keep the lights on”.
Speaking at the official opening of 46 Co-operative Housing Ireland homes in Blessington in Co Wicklow, Mr Harris said: “You can imagine my absolute shock after I received a letter from deputy Mary Lou McDonald.”
“She was outraged, absolutely outraged.”
“You could have knocked me down with the letter when I saw only a few hours after receiving it, that the Stormont Executive, which is led by Sinn Féin, had, funnily enough, purchased with taxpayers’ money, pouches for mobile phones in Northern Ireland.”
Trying to equate phone pouches to the delivery of major hospitals “just doesn’t stack up”, he said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said there were “so many things” that needed to be done in schools, according to teachers and parents.
“Look at the waiting lists for CAMHS. Look at the children waiting for assessments, all those things being ignored, and suddenly the solution to everything is mobile phone pouches? It’s crazy,” she told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne.
Speaking on the same programme, Fine Gael TD and Minister of State for European Affairs Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the Taoiseach was concerned about “protecting our children and their mental health and wellbeing”.
Additional reporting by Paul Cunningham