The Minister for Education has defended the allocation of €9 million towards storage for students mobile phones at secondary schools.
The decision, taken as part of Budget 2025, has been labelled as "a scandalous waste of money" by one opposition party's education spokesperson.
However Minister Norma Foley has described it as a positive, proactive step that would allow students to have a mental break from their phones and allow them to learn without distraction.
Asked whether more pressing issues facing schools should have been addressed, the minister said the entire budget for education is the highest ever, at €11.8 billion, and this allowed the Department of Education to prioritise across a variety of areas.
She cited a variety of reports which pointed to the damage and negativity caused by continuous access to mobile phones.
"We're playing a leadership role here. We're ensuring that students do have a break from the mobile phone...in the overall context of what we're doing here, the €9m is a health and wellbeing measure.
"It's to improve student learning outcomes, to improve sociability and to improve mental health and experience within the school."
Ms Foley said the money would be spend on phone pouches or whatever other types of solutions are identified by schools.
Asked why students could not use their lockers for phone storage, she said they could access lockers throughout the day between classes and this solution excludes this option.
Staff currently have to constantly monitor phone usage, she said, but now there would be a clear rule of not accessing the phone throughout the day.
Once the phone is in the pouch, Ms Foley said it cannot be accessed and then it is opened later in the day, in a way which is controlled by the school.
She said the department was in discussions with schools on this issue and there will be a framework from which schools can draw down.
The Minister said it was intended that this measure would be in place during this school year and she believed individual pouches costed in the region of €20 or €30 each.
Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said he accepted the harms associated with mobile phones in school but said investing €9 million in phone cases was not the solution.
He told RTÉ'S Drivetime: "Online bullying is absolutely an issue and corrosive to the individual who is experiencing it, but the idea that you just put a phone in a box for the day and then they go home, and that won't be a factor anymore is absolutely just ludicrous."
Fianna Fáil Senator Fiona O'Loughlin said international research, health experts and experience have shown that smartphones have a huge impact on the health and well-being of young people.
She said that the minister was unlikely to pull the plug on the plan despite the backlash.
Ms O'Loughlin told the same programme: "To be able to address this issue which has really emerged over the last number of years, we have to equip schools."
'Pet project taking precedence' - Gannon
Earlier, Mr Gannon described the money as being squandered.
He said: "Yet again, we see the Minister for Education's pet project taking precedence over more pressing matters, such as the teacher recruitment crisis.
"There was nothing in yesterday’s budget to address this issue, which is forcing some schools to limit the number of subjects they can teach or take special education teachers away from their core roles to fill staffing gaps.
"There are plenty of other areas where the €9m for phone pouches could be better spent, including increased investment to reduce class sizes in primary schools along with the recruitment of additional teachers and SNAs.
"While a ban on mobile phones in schools sounds good in principle, it should not be this Government’s priority when it comes to fixing our education system."
Yesterday, it emerged that the rollout of a 'Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free’ initiative to make post primary schools smartphone free was allocated €9m in Budget 2025.
Educate Together principal Simon Lewis highlighted that the money could be spent on teachers, special needs assistants or occupational therapists.
Yesterday, TUI President David Waters said that there were "far bigger issues" than the issue of smartphones in schools.
INTO General Secretary John Boyle said it appeared that the Government was prioritising the rollout of the 'Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free' programme over the more pressing needs of schools and their teachers and students.
"Providing a higher allocation for mobile phone pouches than the increase in primary capitation is tone deaf to the pressing needs of primary and special schools. At a time when Ireland has the largest budget surplus in the history of the state, it beggars belief that initiatives like this have been prioritised over the real needs of our cash-strapped schools," Mr Boyle said.
However, he said he would expect that schools that have already invested in such mobile phone pouches to deter their use in schools would now be reimbursed.
