National Principals' Forum

Lobbying Organisation National Principals' Forum

Date published 29 Apr, 2026

Relevant Matter Matters involving public funds

Public Policy Area Education and Training

Period 1 Jan. 2026 to 30 Apr. 2026

Specific Details We lobbied to secure a meeting with Minister Hildegarde Naughton. Tánaiste Simon Harris assisted in organising this meeting, which took place on March 24th 2026 in Leinster House.

Intended results 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.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Angela Dunne

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? Yes

What is the directive you gave to the grassroots campaigners? We asked Primary Principals to sign a petition of support for the three issues in the briefing document for Minister Naughton, Over 850 principals and school roll numbers were returned as signed. This will be communicated to Minister Naughton and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Email (2-5)

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 (1)

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 (1)

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.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

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)