Helen McEntee has said the controversial €9 million phone pouch scheme will be “transformational” for children. 

The money was allocated to the Department of Education in Budget 2025 as part of a Government plan to restrict children’s access to smartphones while at school. 

The funds will allow schools to buy pouches in which children will be made to safely store their phones during the school day. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, the Education Minister said restricting children’s phone access is about “protecting our young people”. 

“What we’re seeing more and more of is younger and younger people having access to phones - children as early as seven or eight years of age,” she said. 

“Having social media accounts, bringing them into school and they really have become quite a distraction. 

“They’re impacting on their school life and what this is about is it’s about making sure in our primary schools that phones are banned and in our secondary schools, this is about restricting them.” 

A teenager using a mobile phone. Picture by: Alamy.com

Minister McEntee continued that restricting children’s phone use at school “isn’t going to solve our problem here”, adding that what children do at home is also key to their wellbeing. 

“But when they’re in school, the fact that they’re on their phones itself is distracting and taking away from the fact that they’re supposed to learn,” she said. 

“At breaktime, it’s having an impact on them engaging, interacting and different social activities.” 

Value for money

When asked whether the €9 million cost of the phone pouch scheme represents value for money, Minister McEntee acknowledged that it is ‘a lot of money’. 

“It’s part of a budget of €12 billion that I have for the whole Department,” she said. 

“There will always be pockets of money that will be spent on different initiatives, on new initiatives and this is what’s happening here. 

“This is specifically to try and support kids in school to make sure that when they’re in schools [that] they’re learning. 

“And that's what education is about, that’s what our schools are about. 

“I do appreciate this is not a small amount of money but when we break this down and when we see the impact it’s already having in schools that have it, I believe this can be transformational.” 

During the General Election, Sinn Féin said the phone pouch scheme was an example of a Government with “no real clue” how to spend taxpayers’ money.

Main image: Helen McEntee in the Newstalk studio.