Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer to teacher training colleges specifically. In regard to budgetary allocations, I had a meeting with principals in my constituency of Kildare South last Monday week and one of the key things they felt was needed was far more training in the teacher training colleges and afterwards around mental health, supporting positive mental health in schools, special needs and autistic spectrum disorder, ASD.

Increasingly, mainstream schools have more children with special needs in an inclusive setting, and rightly so. A higher budget needs to be allocated for the training colleges to provide the appropriate training for teachers at that point, and this should be carried through to when those teachers are teaching. They need to be given adequate resources and supports at that time.