82. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Education her plans to restrict gambling industry-funded talks and programmes in schools.

Minister for Education - Schools have a role to play in supporting their students to develop the key skills and knowledge to enable them to make informed choices when faced with a range of difficult issues, including drugs, alcohol and gambling. This is mainly done through the SPHE programme. SPHE forms part of the mandatory Wellbeing area of learning at Junior Cycle. Wellbeing in Junior Cycle is about young people feeling confident, happy, healthy and connected, and it is one of the principles that underpins Junior Cycle education.

An updated Junior Cycle SPHE specification was published by the NCCA in May 2023 and is being rolled out for first years in all schools from last September. It places a strong focus on the development of important life skills that young people need growing up in a fast changing and complex world. The learning outcomes of the Making Healthy Choices strand in the updated specification include that students should be able to "discuss societal, cultural and economic influences affecting young people when it comes to making healthy choices about smoking, alcohol and other addictive substances and behaviours, and how harmful influences can be overcome in real-life situations". In the specification’s Glossary of Key Terms, addictive behaviours are defined as including “gaming, gambling and social media addictions” .

As part of the redevelopment of SPHE/RSE curricula, in line with the programme for Government, work is ongoing to develop an updated SPHE specification for Senior Cycle. In the course of consultation on the Background Paper and Brief for redevelopment of Senior Cycle SPHE, which took place last year, participants commonly talked about addictive substances and behaviours such as alcohol use and gambling and the need for students to be enabled to recognise addiction and the impact of addiction on emotional wellbeing, on decision-making and on family and friends. A draft specification has now been developed, which addresses this learning, which was open for consultation until 3 November last.

It would not be appropriate that resources or materials produced or funded by the gambling industry, for education and awareness on gambling, to be in use in our schools. There are protocols in place to ensure that strict criteria are observed by schools when inviting external agencies to address students about particular issues. The Department provides clear guidance to schools on the engagement of outside speakers and on the use of external resources to assist in delivering the curriculum. These guidelines are most recently outlined in updated circular 0042/2018 for primary schools and 0043/2018 for post primary schools. Programmes delivered by visitors or external agencies must use appropriate evidence-based methodologies with clear educational outcomes.

These circulars also require that all materials proposed for use by external providers must be approved in advance by the principal and Board of Management, be age and stage appropriate for pupils and be in line with the ethos of the school, and the principles of the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum. This applies both to resources such as literature, and to workshops that may be held in schools.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) provides guidelines for teachers in choosing resources for use in their SPHE programme. In these guidelines the NCCA encourages teachers to question the origin and funding of such resources as well as the evidence base used in their production. If, for example, resources are funded by parties with conflicts of interests, then they should not be used in schools.