I express my gratitude to everyone and thank all the members of the joint committee for their work in preparing this report. I know full well the work that they are engaging with. As I was the chair of the committee in the previous Dáil term, I am aware of the work, effort and preparation involved. I have watched a number of the committee's meetings over the past year or so. The dedication, commitment and the depth of knowledge within the committee is a joy to behold. The seriousness that members take their role as advocates in the committee for disability matters is hugely important. I congratulate each and every one of them for their input into it. It is one of the most important committees in the Houses of Oireachtas because one fifth of us now according to the various censuses have a disability of one type or another. The committee is led by Mairead who had a huge influence. There is a great team on the disability committee. I thank them all for that. There are a number of issues that were raised in the report on inclusive education. In his opening remarks, the Chairman mentioned a school in his constituency in Limerick. If there is proper investment in education for people with additional needs or disabilities, they can flourish in all those settings. It is about how we pathway that to grow. Since my appointment to this role, I have taken on this role extremely seriously and I have worked with all stakeholders to ensure that we have the best possible education system. A number of the points were made in the report regarding the transitions in education. In any child's life who has a disability when they enter preschool, go from preschool to primary school, then go to primary to post-primary and then onto adulthood, those key points are hugely important. In my engagement, not just as chair of the committee, but as a public representative for a number of years, families have been in contact with me. They are the key points or the key difficult moments in family's lives. It is important that we have the right resources in place there. Over the past week or so, I am pleased that we have secured additional funding, particularly on special schools, and there will be extra resources given to special schools to guide the students and their families as to what the future looks like when they leave the special school, whether it is into supported employment, day services or beyond. They are a hugely important piece in it. If we compare September 2025 and September 2026, we will have close to 1,000 extra special classes opened across the country at primary and post-primary level. These classes did not just come about. A lot of work done by the Department, Deputy McEntee in her time in the Department, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, myself and the school communities over the past 12 months to bring this to fruition. With the engagement that the committee has had with school authorities and school communities, it is important to note that there is a huge openness across primary and post-primary schools to engage with specialised education and to improve and make sure that we have more inclusivity and classes within that. That is a work that is being done. We have also introduced the new inclusive special classes at post-primary and primary, which have been welcomed by the school communities. We have to embed them and ensure that we are doing the right thing. The one thing that I constantly I push is that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an overarching document with overarching reach. The optional protocol was one the issues that we addressed in our committee and to ensure it was signed during the term of the previous Government, which it was finally. It is only as good as how the Republic of Ireland will interpret that and ensure that we have the supports in place to ensure that every child matters and that every child that goes through education who has special educational needs has the best possible outcomes within the education system. I passionately believe that if we invest properly in special education, we will improve the life cycle of the individuals who has special educational needs and their families. We will also improve a variety of issues societally.. That is fundamental. As a country, we have invested hugely in education over the past 100 or so years, which has served us well. We have to ensure that we continue the level of engagement and support across the special education system to ensure that the best possible outcomes for children with disabilities. Over the past five or six weeks, in five locations across the country, we met the principals of the special schools. We sat down with them for four or five hours on a Friday to see what the challenges are for them in their school communities, including what they, their teams, their leadership, teachers and SNAs face on a daily basis and to feed that back to ensure that we are doing the right thing. One of the big issues they were looking at was career guidance. What we have done is ensure that hours are provided across the special schools to support students and their families into the future. We also worked extremely hard in relation the SNA workforce development plan, the workforce redeployment plan and the circular which will replace the 2014 circular. The 2026 circular has been brought out. It gives certainty to many thousands. This year alone, over 26,000 SNAs will be employed in the education system. That number will increase over the coming years. We are listening carefully to what is being said. I was delighted to meet members of the committee in Liskennett recently. Everybody who was at the centre in Liskennett was really impressed with the service provided there and the ongoing work being done by St. Joseph's Foundation in Charleville. I congratulate the Joint Committee on Disability Matters on visiting the site to see the work being done at first hand. The service in question works with 80 schools across the region. It provides therapy sessions to special classes and special schools. It is an integral part of those classes and schools in the context of the wider community. On one of the days I was there, people had travelled from as far north as Ennistymon in County Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and beyond to get an hour or less of equine therapy. Such therapy is of huge benefit to the children. You could not but be impressed by the work ethic of the teams at Liskennett and by the services they provide for the children involved. It supplements and supports special classes and inclusive education. We are starting inclusive special classes this year. Other countries tell us that they do not have special schools but that they have very inclusive models. Not every child, because of their needs, can meet the strict criteria. We have to have special schools, special classes and integrated classes across the system. Some practitioners in education have been extremely capable in pushing the boat out and challenging me and other policymakers as to the best next steps for education and how we can be more inclusive. We have been engaging thoroughly since I took up this role, for example, with the National Council for Special Education, and the work it does. Over the past number of years we have increased the number of special educational needs organisers, SENOs, from 60 to 120. There are now more SENOs who liaise with families to ensure that they make the best possible informed decisions for their children. Last year, we had the 51 recommendations regarding the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act. The latter was developed over 20 years ago and was reviewed in the context of how we make sure that we have the best possible education system and the next steps. I was Chair of the education committee 20 years ago when people were talking about mainstreaming and the challenges involved Education has evolved enormously in those 20 years for the better. We must now look at the next 20 years in the context of what is the right thing to do with the review of the EPSEN Act. The Government is holding a forum on special education and ensuring that the various stakeholders are talking about the next steps. We all have to understand that our schools are our future. It is important to ensure that we are engaging. In every role across the education system, we see great practice. I could not but have been impressed by what has been done at Maynooth Community College. It reached out and set up a sports day for every special class in Leinster. Students in special classes in post-primary schools across Leinster were all invited to take part. I was there on the morning of the launch. No matter the challenges, you would have to be extremely impressed by the co-ordination involved, by the people in Maynooth Community College who were driving it in the first instance, by their understanding of the concept in having the special classes involved in their own day - all other students have their sports days - and by their energy, commitment and dedication. Those are some of the great practices. When I was first appointed, people said we should look at best practice across different countries. We have a lot of very good practice in our education system, however. The challenge is to ensure that we replicate that best practice across the country. The committee's report speaks to the many challenges and issues we have to face up to across education, including teacher training, reduced timetables and exclusion, which is important at school level. I spoke about transition and inclusion. The Chair raised the issue of sign languages and co-ordination. We are best able to implement policy by collecting data and ensuring that we have the relevant data across the education system. Governance is also important. I cannot but congratulate the committee unreservedly on its work. I appeal to all the members of the committee to continue with that work. If we continue to invest in specialised education as we are - one third of the budget is being spent on specialised education - in the years head we will see great benefits for the children, their families and wider society. I am delighted to accept this report. I encourage the committee to continue its work. It is hugely important.

Sentiment score: 0.36

No. Certainly not.

Sentiment score: 0.02

In the new school year.

Sentiment score: 0.00

I thank the Members for their contributions. A number of issues were raised. It was remiss of me at the start not to talk about the education therapy services. We made a decision at Government back in March or April of 2025. Some people said we would not be able to do it. This involves the whole of Government. It was a decision made at the Cabinet disability committee. The housing committee is the committee that meets the most, and the disability subcommittee is second. A decision was taken to put therapies back into schools, starting with special schools and then rolling services out elsewhere. There are two elements to that. The first is recruitment. Thankfully we have had a successful recruitment process. Services will be clinically led by the NCSE and the structure is in place. Services are being rolled out in special schools. The Department of further and higher education has examined expanding the amount of training and college places available for occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, behavioural therapists and other therapists. We cannot manufacture therapists; we have to train them through the system. We are working extensively across Government. We have increased capacity in third level colleges to ensure that we have an adequate number of occupational and speech and language therapists. The other piece is that heretofore no block release was available for occupational therapy, in particular, for special schools in Ireland. A number of occupational therapists were being trained in college and were then going to block release in the UK or other jurisdictions. We know when people go on block release we lose a certain percentage of them. From this year, that is being addressed in special schools. Block release is available for education therapy services. This is a great enabler and will be significant for students who are going to special schools. We have to continue to monitor and work on that. I can report to the House that is being done. There was a pilot scheme in 2024. The new scheme includes 45 schools and is a permanent scheme to provide therapies. It will be rolled out to over 140 schools. Over the past five years we have added another 20 special schools across the system because we need to build capacity in terms of education therapy. It will be a great enabler for the system. The teams working in special schools are superhuman beings and are doing an amazing job. We have to encourage and understand them. That is why I reached out to all the principals over the past number of weeks and met them face-to-face. We will continue to examine schools that have embraced special classes, including inclusive special classes, with such great enthusiasm and excitement. Across the Chamber I heard about the commitment and dedication to special education. I reflected on some of the reports we launched when I was chair of the committee. The level of commitment to special education and disability on the floor of the Dáil is a joy to behold. People are well informed and see the challenges. We are dealing with a system that is evolving and we have to ensure that we are equipping the system not just for the short term but for the next decade and beyond. We spoke about the workforce development plan over the next decade or so. We have to ensure that we are equipping it for the next decade and beyond. The decisions that we make today are for the betterment of society. I thank Members for their contributions. I engaged with all of those who contributed as best I could individually and collectively. I thank the Committee on Disability Matters for the work it does. I ask that it continue the good work and I look forward to going before it again in the not too distant future. The committee visited Liskennett in Limerick. The committee is a powerful body and the more it is out in communities and groups the more informed the Oireachtas is, so keep up the good work.

Sentiment score: 0.22