Ms Inez Bailey:

We spoke outside with the National Council for Special Education. It commissioned a report on the progression for people with special educational needs in a post-school set of circumstances. With regard to higher education, one gets to hang onto whatever supports one had, and one has access to many supports in higher education. In full-time further education and training, one can get some supports, but if one is in the part-time system one can get nothing. The bulk of the people we meet have never been diagnosed, although they may have an indication they have dyslexia, for example. They cannot afford a €500 assessment fee from an educational psychologist who might tell them whether they have dyscalculia or dyslexia. The adult literacy service may help people address those needs if they have them, but it will be without an assessment. It is often a matter of trying to cobble together a response to them as opposed to having a more desirable approach.

There are no specialist resources. We advocate a joined-up approach between the National Council for Special Education and SOLAS to determine how we can share resources. At present, most of the resources are not even shared. We could save a lot of money just by sharing what is available in terms of our knowledge, guides and resources. There is no comprehensive lifelong learning approach to any of these areas. It is still quite siloed into the school system - the further education system - which is currently considered full-time. Those in this system contrast with the plethora of people, amounting to hundreds of thousands, engaged in part-time further and adult education and training at local level.

They are all completely excluded from what the system ordinarily provides.