I would like to add to the great points that Deputy Currie made. If you look up online the difficulties that children with dyslexia face, you will often find something like the following statement: Dyslexia causes difficulties with reading accuracy and fluency, spelling, writing, working at speed, holding information in mind while working on it, and processing verbal information. It can impact maths and other curriculum areas, and many dyslexics feel exhausted and challenged every day in school. As a former SNA, I know what a struggle with dyslexia looks like in a mainstream classroom. It looks like this. It is John who misses school a lot. It is Katie who never has her homework done. It is John who pretends he is not listening when the teacher asks him to answer a question on the whiteboard, because he does not understand what is written on the whiteboard. It is Katie who goes out on a break and is aggressive and angry in the school yard because she just spent two hours in a classroom when she did not know what was going on and could not understand what the teacher was putting on the board, so she feels frustrated and powerless. It is John who feels sick to his stomach at the thought of being asked to read out loud. Can you imagine what that feels like? Can you put yourselves in the shoes of John or Katie? We need to do better for our children with dyslexia in primary and secondary schools. I am working alongside a DEIS school in Kilkenny, which says that 10% of pupils in the school have dyslexia, but they have no extra support other than the standard learning supports that are in every school. Children with dyslexia need specific supports, however. The Wilson programme is the gold standard. It works by teaching phonics to dyslexic children in a way that dyslexic children can understand. We only need to look at the transformative educational experience that children with autism have experienced. I will come back in in my second contribution.

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To follow on from what I was saying, we only need to look at the transformative educational experience that children with autism are experiencing in Ireland due to the introduction of many more special educational classrooms. Reading classes in a mainstream setting would allow these targeted supports that I have mentioned to be delivered to children with dyslexia. It would also allow them to stay in their class in their local school with their friends and siblings. Every parish could have a reading class in the local school. Children with dyslexia often have very good social skills and they do not find the social side of school challenging. I invite the Minister to visit the school in Kilkenny that is already fighting this fight. She can meet the children, including John and Katie. We must own up to the fact that the current way we look after children with dyslexia with resources and SET is not sufficient for children with dyslexia. Between 5% and 8% of our population have dyslexia, but 30% of entrepreneurs have dyslexia. Children with dyslexia can be incredibly bright, but they are not able to access the information because they need extra support with reading classes.

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