I thank the Minister of State for taking my questions and facilitating the change. It did not suit both of us at the time so I appreciate him being here. We have discussed dyslexia quite a lot at the education committee over the last while and over the time since the committee started discussing it I have been contacted by so many parents, support teachers and students about dyslexia and the supports available in our schools at primary and secondary level. Today in The Irish Times there is an article about a mother whose child needs a reading school but there is no place available for them. I want to discuss a number of things. I asked a parliamentary question about reading recovery because there is new research, though perhaps not that new, about the effectiveness of reading recovery. As I am sure the Minister of State is aware, it is a programme used for children early on to help them learn how to read. The mixed research is basically saying it is not as effective for the long term. It can be quite effective immediately but the meta-analysis has come back saying that over a long time reading recovery is not as effective as structured literacy programmes are. On that basis I asked how much money has been spent on reading recovery over the last five years. We are talking about figures of just over €248,000 to almost €370,000. That is a lot of money on a programme that is now being looked at by academics, especially in Australia, as not being an effective use of supports for children with dyslexia. I am very interested in the Department's view on moving more to a structured literacy programme. That means teaching explicit skills. It is not asking a child what they think is going to happen in a particular sentence or what they think a given word is about. That is useless for a child in the long term. It is great for there and then if they are reading Ann and Barry. I am aware they do not read Ann and Barry any more. It was Ann and Barry in my day and that of the Minister of State but they read more interesting books than that now. Those pictures are relied on so much, whereas the explicit nature of teaching in structured literacy programmes leads to a longer-term understanding of words, structures, etc. It is systemic, sequential, cumulative and has a diagnostic way of looking at literacy. It is really important the Department starts to explore whether we are behind the curve here. We are not keeping on top of what the biggest research is saying, which is to move away from reading recovery and more towards structured literacy. I also want to address the extra ten minutes in the exams. That debate was very heated in the education committee with the NCSE and the State Examinations Commission. They wanted extra time to decide whether they were going to give our students with dyslexia extra time. The irony was not lost on anybody. In other jurisdictions exam support far exceeds what we have. There is a lot more flexibility. We have an extra ten minutes coming in for the papers. In other countries candidates are allowed an extra 25% exam time. Other countries also allow access to word processing, computers and all that sort of stuff. It seems to be a lot easier. The process for getting reasonable accommodation here is an absolute nightmare. There are two more things I would like to talk about. What students want when they go to school is proper support not just for reading, spelling and all that sort of stuff but also for how dyslexia affects every part of the body and brain. It is about how those supports can be understood by the students. I want to mention NCPD but I will come back to that.

Sentiment score: 0.17

I appreciate that the Government is putting a lot of resources into this, and I know the Minister of State is working tirelessly on it. I accept that. However, we can always do things better. It is my job in opposition to always hold the guys on the other side of the House to account, and I like doing that. There are challenges. We do not have enough reading schools. Dyslexia Ireland is saying exactly what the Minister of State is saying, which is that we want to mainstream everybody, but if we do not have the expertise in every single school, we cannot do that. That is why children need to go to specialist services, like reading schools, for a couple of years. We need to rapidly upskill every single member of staff in primary and secondary school, particularly secondary school. In primary school, I think that we are doing excellently, and we are able to identify it. In secondary school, the initial teacher training education, the SNA training and the continuous professional development really need to focus on dyslexia and other disabilities. I do not think the expertise is there. They are subject teachers. I am not in any way being disparaging to any teacher. As the Minister of State knows, I love education, and I love the people who work in it because of all the passion they bring to it. However, we can do this better. There needs to be an inspectorate for the services provided to students with dyslexia. The reason for that is to make sure that the standard is there and that every child is getting the resources they need. Many students come to me saying that they cannot read or write. We can see the number of students who leave mainstream education because they cannot cope in a system that does not work around them. We need to look at that to see where we are letting children fall through the gaps. It is through no fault of their own, or for want of learning. It is the way our system is. We need to make sure that we are able to fully support them in that way. When it comes to computers and so on, we need more resources for every school. There are students who do not get that funding, and they are missing out. We need to make sure they do not miss out.

Sentiment score: 0.15