Minister for Education Norma Foley has said the new guidelines approved by the Cabinet to encourage parents to not purchase smartphones for primary school children was "not a war on phones".
This plan will be largely based on the example of eight schools in Greystones, County Wicklow.
Parents of primary school students in Greystones agreed collectively not to buy smartphones for their children.
Today's response from the Government has been prompted by concerns about primary school children's potential exposure to cyberbullying, along with violent and sexual content.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has said that most schools already prohibit the use of smartphones but the biggest issue is what happens after school.
This new policy is about informing and educating parents about the dangers of smartphones for young children.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, Ms Foley said it was an acknowledgement that they can have phones for security.
"This not a war on phones. This is just an acknowledgement that of course students can have phones, they just don't need, at primary school age, to have smartphones."
"We are very conscious of the fact we have young people who now carry smartphones, which have content within them that are sexual, violent or online bullying, so many opportunities that no parent or guardians want them to avail of (content)," she said.
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She added that the department wanted to provide support, information and education to empower parents to make the right decisions when it comes to the purchase of smartphones.
"We are being proactive in the space, engaging Webwise and providing funding to them so they will have a national coordinator and regional digital champions throughout the country in education centres, where information meetings and supports for school staff, parents and interested adults so there will be a collective voluntary buy-in to ensure children at primary school age are not utilising smartphones, they don’t need a smartphone."
Labour's Spokesperson on Education Aodhán Ó Ríordáin described the policy as a classic distraction from the severe staffing shortage in primary schools.
He said it was an insult to send these guidelines to schools, all of which already have a smartphone policy in place.
According to research institute the ESRI, 54% of all nine-year-olds in Ireland in 2018 had their own mobile phone.
Covid-19 Inquiry
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has said that the memo to establish the Covid-19 inquiry will go to Cabinet "in the next couple of weeks".
Leo Varadkar said that, as "it will go on for some time", the inquiry will be a big commitment for those who participate.
It will be difficult to recruit a chair and panel, he noted, "because it'd be very hard to find people who didn't have some role in managing pandemic" or who did not express views on it.
"But that's a challenge that I think we will overcome," he added.
The memo to the Cabinet will also agree the inquiry's terms of reference.
Anti-Money Laundering Authority
Also at today's Cabinet meeting, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath got approval to submit a bid to base the EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Ireland.
The proposed new authority aims to improve the detection of suspicious financial transactions and close loopholes used by criminals to launder illicit proceeds or finance terrorist activities.
Up to 10 countries are expected to compete to host the authority and a decision on the location is expected in 2024.
Additional reporting: Emma O Kelly
