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

I remind members and witnesses to turn off their mobile phones or switch them to flight mode. Mobile phones interfere with the sound system and make it difficult for parliamentary reporters to report the meeting. Television coverage and web streaming is also adversely affected. The next item on the agenda is engagement with stakeholders on the provision of advanced skills teachers, AST, and special classes in mainstream schools throughout the State. We all agree every child should be given an equal opportunity to be educated in the environment that suits him or her best. With this in mind, we, as a committee, have prioritised the provision of AST and special classes in mainstream schools in our work programme. We wrote to a number of groups and organisations asking for written submissions. We received quite a number of those. We are going to have the opportunity to listen to, and engage with, a number of witnesses over the next few hours.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to welcome Mr. Adam Harris, CEO of AsIAm; Ms Lorraine Dempsey, communications and policy officer with the Special Needs Parents Association, who has been here before and who it is nice to see again; Ms Breda Corr, general secretary of the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education, who we have welcomed a number of times previously and who it is good to see again; Mr. Fergal Kelly from the Catholic Primary School Management Association; Mr. John Curtis, the general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body/Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools; and Ms Teresa Griffin, CEO of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE.

The format of this part of the meeting is that I will invite each of the witnesses to make a brief opening statement of no more than three minutes, which will be followed by engagement with members of the committee. If issues, matters or questions arise during that time, and if the witnesses feel they would like to come back to us at a later stage, please feel free to do so. If they correspond with Mr. Alan Guidon, the clerk, he will ensure we all get copies of that extra information which will be used in helping us formulate the report and recommendations that we will make to the Minister for Education and Skills and his Department.

Before we begin, I wish to draw witnesses' attention to the fact that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, they are protected by absolute privilege in to their evidence to this committee. However, if they are directed by me, as Chair, to cease giving evidence about a particular matter, and they continue to do so, they are entitled, thereafter only, to qualified privilege in respect of your evidence. They are directed that evidence only connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given. Please respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person, persons or entity by name, or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I wish to advise witnesses that opening statements and submissions made to the committee will be published on the committee website after this meeting.