Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. I enjoyed the presentations. Deputy Ó Ríordáin touched on the question of the apparent increase in demand for SNAs and resource teachers. I have spoken to principals and others in schools in my constituency who raised the issue of people seeking private assessments to get the decision they want after receiving a decision they did not like from a public assessment. I am interested to hear the witnesses' comments on this. What difficulty does this present? Do they accept that demand has increased in the way it appears?

What progress has been made on rolling out the 118 new classes for special needs which were announced? Families are delighted to get a place in a school but they are disappointed they do not have support services such as speech and language therapy. There appears to be a real gap and a mismatch between school places and the support services required. I would be interested to hear the witnesses' comments on this.

I wish to ask Ms Griffin a question on geographical gaps. Previously, and to be parochial, there was a big gap north of Swords to Balbriggan where no school places were available. This has changed in recent years. In general, do geographical gaps exist throughout the country and are they being addressed?