National Principals' Forum

Lobbying Organisation National Principals' Forum

Date published 09 Sep, 2025

Relevant Matter Matters involving public funds

Public Policy Area Education and Training

Period 1 Jan, 2025 to 30 Apr, 2025

Specific Details We continued to highlight issues affecting primary education to our local public representatives such as underfunding, lack of Special Education Needs supports and pressure on principal teachers due to workload issues.

Intended results To secure a meeting with Minister Helen McEntee if possible to discuss these issues with a view to working towards positive collaborative change.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Rory Healy

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? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Letter (1)

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.

Meeting (1)

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.

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.

Helen McEntee Minister (Department of Education)

Simon Harris Tánaiste and Minister (Department of Defence)

Darren O'Rourke TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)