Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 April 2026
37. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Youth the engagement her Department has had with a project (details supplied); if she will have a meeting with the group; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28887/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy department is very aware of the great work of the Shona Project in supporting and empowering teenage girls.
The area of wellbeing and the promotion of positive mental health is a priority for the Department of Education and Youth. This includes promoting emotional wellbeing and resilience and positive coping skills, which support children and young people to manage the complexities of modern life. The department’s approach to supporting wellbeing and mental health is set out in its Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice which can be found atwww.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/campaigns/wellbeing-in-education/ and informs the department’s extensive and ongoing work in the area of student wellbeing. A dedicated wellbeing portal brings together all the wellbeing supports and resources that have been developed by the Department and the Department’s support service.
Neart – the Irish word for strength, is the national programme of mental health and wellbeing resources and training for post-primary schools that is delivered by Jigsaw in partnership with NEPS. The programme provides supports to students, parents and school staff. Supports for students include learning opportunities that promote mental health and wellbeing. For parents it provides psychoeducation on the promotion of wellbeing/mental health via webinars, e-learning opportunities and a new podcast series. Neart has delivered a suite of live webinars and eLearning courses for school staff, live masterclasses for student support teams (SSTs), eLearning train the trainer courses for teacher-led classroom-based workshops for students. The Neart webpage jigsaw.ie/neart/ provides all the relevant information about the programme of supports and what’s on offer throughout the 2025/26 school year.
At post-primary level students have access to guidance counselling which may be provided on an individual or group basis as part of a developmental learning process, at moments of personal crisis and at key transition points, such as transitioning to further education or employment Guidance. Also at post primary a Student Support Team is a student-focused mechanism put in place by a school in order to co-ordinate the support available for students in the school and to facilitate links to the community and other non-school support services.
Schools have autonomy to decide programmes and initiatives and we continue to advise schools to refer to the following circulars if considering collaboration with external organisations or facilitators:
Circular 0042/2018 (primary) and Circular 0043/2018 (post-primary) Best Practice Guidance for schools in the use of programmes and/or external facilitators in promoting wellbeing, consistent with the Department of Education and Youth's Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice.
Schools can choose programmes and resources which meet the specific needs of their own context. It is a matter for the management of each school to decide on the appropriateness of seeking external facilitators in promoting wellbeing.
The Department has initiated a Wellbeing Policy and Implementation Plan Review and broader stakeholder engagement process to consult on a successor to the current Wellbeing in Education Policy.
This review had three distinct phases:
Internal Review –collected and collated feedback from key implementation stakeholders to ascertain 1) progress and achievements to date, 2) challenges encountered, 3) key learnings, 4) recommendations for next steps. This is complete.
Literature Review - the wellbeing office commissioned the ESRI to undertake a Literature review on wellbeing promotion. This is now complete and the ESRI published their findings on 20 January 2026. The publication is available here www.esri.ie/publications/supporting-student-wellbeing-in-school-contexts-a-narrative-review. The review focused on:
i. The strengths of the Irish system
ii. Areas for improvement in the Irish system
iii. International evidence of best practice
iv. Measuring and monitoring wellbeing
Stakeholder Consultation – A broader stakeholder engagement process will soon take place to consult on a successor Wellbeing in Education Policy and Implementation Plan which will inform the priorities when we produce an updated strategy incorporating the continued, adapted, or new areas of agreed focus in educational wellbeing. Department officials will advertise this review on gov.ie and are communicating with stakeholders to include them in the consultation process, that will lead to the new Wellbeing Policy and Implementation Plan going forward.
Shona Project will be included in these consultations.
