Politician(s) lobbied: Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State), Department of Education; Simon Harris (Tánaiste and Minister), Department of Foreign Affairs; Ryan O'Meara (TD), Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas
Intent: We intended to secure a face to face meeting with Minister Hildegarde Naughton to communicate to her the serious issues being faced by schools and school leaders in relation to sustainable leadership, lack of supports for children with additional needs and inadequate school funding.
Methods: EmailMeetingInformal communication
Details by Method
Email
We emailed An Tánaiste to ask him to help secure a meeting with Minister Naughton. An email inviting us to a meeting was sent by Minister Naughton's office. The date and time was postponed several times before taking place on March 24th 2026. We emailed Minister Naughton's office numerous times to liaise with her secretary on final details for this meeting.
Meeting
We met with Minister Naughton and 4 senior officials in Leinster House on March 24th 2026, and made a brief oral submission on the three key areas aforementioned. and also gave Minister Naughton a folder of research attesting to these issues and their prevalence and impact in schools across the country. We made several practical and cost effective recommendations for improvements and we sought follow up communication and collaboration to further clarify this information & affect positive change
Informal communication
We met with TD Ryan O'Meara incidentally while awaiting our meeting with Minister Naughton in Leinster House. He was introduced to NPF members by his constituent Angela Dunne, and we discussed our lobbying work briefly with him, as he is education spokesperson for his political party. We also took a photograph with Deputy O'Meara.
Politician(s) lobbied: Simon Harris (Tánaiste and Minister), Department of Foreign Affairs; Hildegarde Naughton (Minister), Department of Education
Intent: Engagement with the Minister to outline how improvements on the ground can be achieved.
Methods: Email
Details by Method
Email
We sought a meeting with the Minister for Education, with the help of An Tánaiste, to discuss a three point agenda: 1) Sustainable leadership & modernisation of the principal's role; 2) Inclusion and special education structures; 30 Funding & pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools. Meeting to occur in February 2026.
Politician(s) lobbied: Helen McEntee (Minister), Department of Education; Paschal Donohoe (Minister), Department of Finance
Intent: We continue to highlight issues maligning our primary education system and seeking to work collaboratively with government towards timely, practical and positive change. We would like to secure a meeting with our Minister for Education or the Joint Oireachtas Committee to discuss these issues further. We welcome any engagement or support from Oireachtas Members.
Methods: Unknown
Details by Method
Method not specified
NPF (National Principals' Forum) Budget Lobby Campaign 2026 was sent to all Oireachtas Members for their consideration
Politician(s) lobbied: Helen McEntee (Minister), Department of Education; Simon Harris (Tánaiste and Minister), Department of Defence; Darren O'Rourke (TD), Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas
Intent: To secure a meeting with Minister Helen McEntee if possible to discuss these issues with a view to working towards positive collaborative change.
Methods: MeetingLetter
Details by Method
Meeting
Two of our lobby group members met with Darren O'Rourke T to further discuss matters we brought to a meeting in the AV Room in Leinster House in June 2024.
Letter
We wrote to Tánaiste Simon Harris, asking him to speak to Minister McEntee with a view to securing a meeting with both Ministers and representatives of our lobby group.
Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State), Department of Education; Roderic O'Gorman (Minister), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Anne Rabbitte (Minister of State), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Intent: We intended to give politicians the information they needed to be more congisant of the specific issues maligning Primary Education, so that these would feature on political Budget Manifestos and thus ensure a positive outcome and badly needed increase in allocation of funding for Primary Education.
Methods: Unknown
Details by Method
Method not specified
We created a Budget 2025 Campaign poster and emailed it to all TDs and Senators - following up from a meeting some NPF lobbyists and other Principals held in the AV Room in Leinster House in June 24 seeking greater supports for Primary Education
2024-08-03
5 officialsCurrent/Former DPOFAQ Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State), Department of Education; Roderic O'Gorman (Minister), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Anne Rabbitte (Minister of State), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Jackie Cahill (TD), Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas
Intent: To raise awareness, to prioritise these educational issues in the upcoming budget/ future general elections. Government Expenditure on Education per student is equivalent to 13% of per capita GDP, which is below the OECD average of 27% -Ireland ranks last out of 36 countries for investment in Education as a measure of our GDP, according to the latest OECD data. This needs to improve in order to provide the funding needed to run our schools & pay the staff paid directly by the Board of Management::We asked that the Department of Education faciliate school principals to upload our SEN (Special Education Needs) data to the existing POD (Pupil Online Database) annually so that our EXACT SEN needs school profiles are known by the Dept and NCSE and therefore accurate SET (Special Education Teaching) and SNA (Special Needs Assistant) allocations can be granted to schools annually. Without this data, the system will continue to fall short, placing huge pressure on all concerned, ::Greater supp
Methods: Email
Details by Method
Email
We followed up from this meeting by emailing ALL Oireachtas members with a digital copy of both the Powerpoint presentation & the briefing document. We followed up with individual politicians who reached out thereafter and put in PQs to Minister Foley on our behalf in relation to the school funding and SEN concerns we raised in our meeting and communication. We are still seeking a meeting with Minister Norma Foley to discuss these matters in an open, positive, professional and proactive manner.
Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Anne Rabbitte (Minister of State), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Josepha Madigan (Minister of State), Department of Education; Roderic O'Gorman (Minister), Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Intent: We communicated how schools have been inaccurately profiled in terms of SEN (special Education Needs) for many years & asked for a mechanism by which schools can communicate their SEN data to the Dept/ NCSE be created so that this ever devolving issue can be addressed meaningfully & realistically. We suggested that the existing POD(Pupil Online Database) is ideal for this purpose, & will solve the Dept's problem of not having accurate/current Data from the HSE, which they admit wasn't consistent
Methods: Email
Details by Method
Email
We also emailed said Ministers in this time regarding AON (Assessment of Need) to relay our grave concerns about this matter. We communicated that while schools(principals) may be identified by NCSE as a suitable person to ASSIST with AON, that we cannot be charged with responsibility for the SOLE educational component for AON, as we are not qualified to assess or diagnose children with educational needs. We sought clarity that an actual educational psychologist would have a role in this process
Email
We sent the petition via email to Minister Roderic O'Gorman, Minister of State Anne Rabitte, Minister Norma Foley & Minister of State Josepha Madigan. We also sent it to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education. We also reiterated our request for a meeting with Minister Norma Foley and Minister of State Josepha Madigan, which we have been seeking with no avail for a number of years now, to discuss the issues at hand with a view to finding pro-active, reasonable and practical solutions.
Politician(s) lobbied: Norma Foley (Minister), Department of Education; Josepha Madigan (Minister of State), Department of Education
Intent: To achieve some of the improvements needed in education, as outlined in the Lobby Campaign. To have our concerns once again highlighted and documented.
Methods: Social Media
Details by Method
Social Media
Our Budget 2024 Lobby Campaign Poster was shared on our social media platforms.
Politician(s) lobbied: Unknown
Intent: Unknown
Methods: Unknown
Details by Method
Method not specified
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Politician(s) lobbied: Unknown
Intent: Unknown
Methods: Unknown
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