I congratulate the four winners of last weekend's by-elections and wish them well for their time in the Oireachtas. In the same way one would sympathise with a person who did not do the lotto on the weekend his or her favourite six numbers were picked out, we ought to sympathise with the person who would have won the fifth by-election that would have taken place in Cork North Central had the incumbent resigned and the Taoiseach moved the writ. I suspect the unknown winner would probably have been Senator Colm Burke, who is present. I am sure his day will come. I congratulate him on his performance.

I wish to support the amendment to the Order of Business in respect of St. Joseph's in Shankill, the largest dementia-only care home in Ireland. As Senators are aware, it employs more than 100 people and offers 60 residential places. In supporting the amendment, I appeal to the Leader to convey to his Government colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, the deep sense of alarm being created by the absence of a resolution or agreed way forward with the National Treatment Purchase Fund. New admissions are being discontinued and there is to be day care only.

As I understand it, the St. John of God hospital group has been covering the financial shortfall from its resources and has spent €7 million covering debt since 2012, mainly due to upgrading facilities and increasing staff numbers to meet HIQA regulatory requirements. It is clear that St. Joseph's and the St. John of God Order have been making every effort to keep this vital lifeline open. The value of the service provided by St. Joseph's and the respite it offers cannot be overestimated. It is fair to state we have known for some time that it has been facing a financial crisis which has been mainly attributed to the fact that the day care rate set by the HSE has not increased since 2006. It is very important that we focus on that issue in the Seanad and I ask the Leader to convey our concern to the Minister.

On the somewhat related issue of Cuisle, I have not been playing politics. I have no interest in giving an advantage to one political party over another. However, I must state I was deeply disappointed by the response of the Minister of State in the House last week because, as Senator Leyden pointed out, he washed his hands of the issue like Pontius Pilate. I used that phrase myself. The Minister of State stated Cuisle does great work but it was up to others to make the decision. That is not what being in power is about. Rather, it is about deciding the matter should be sorted out, recognising that one cannot intervene directly and others must make the decision but ensuring one's preference is conveyed to them. That ministerial clout can make all the difference. That has not been done in the case of Cuisle, which is very regrettable.

Today we found out from the Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA, which is published every three years, that Ireland ranked fourth out of the 36 OECD countries for the education of children.

We should be proud of our education system in enabling our children to reach such high standards. Obviously, most of our education system is working well. When it comes to reading, science and mathematics, a group of 15 years olds were interviewed in 79 countries. When it comes to reading, science and mathematics we are out-performing other OECD countries. As I said, we ranked fourth out of 36.

Gender balance and gender attainment produced interesting results. Significantly, girls out-perform boys in reading but boys are holding their own in science and mathematics, where there are no significant differences. It gives us an insight into our youth, their interests and what we are doing. The low Internet use reported in Ireland is important. Students here use school books. It seems that they are less likely to report the negative feelings that heavy Internet users report. One thing that is somewhat concerning is the data on their well-being. Some three-fifths of teens said that they were not satisfied with their lives. That is above the overall average. They are significantly less satisfied than the average in OECD countries.

In July last year, the former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, launched the well-being policy statement and framework for practice in schools, clearly outlining the strong policies and actions that need to be in place to ensure students' sense of belonging. Perhaps the current Minister for Education and Skills could come to the House and update us on progress. Kudos goes to the students and parents. What we want mostly is for happy contented children to grow up into happy contented adults.

I want to give a shout out to the four new candidates, in particular my colleague, Deputy Mark Ward.

Thank you, Senator.

Finally, slán to Jim Gavin, the daring, decent and humble manager of Dublin with the unprecedented five-in-a-row that everyone here wholeheartedly supported when we congratulated them on their win. Farewell to Jim. I thank him for the unprecedented run of the Dubs. Up the Dubs.