Ms Deirdre Kenny:

I will refer to the educational element. There is a very strong link between communication ability and literacy skills. Children who start school with very poor communication and pre-literacy skills struggle in the educational setting. I understand schools have reorganised and try to identify children very quickly when they start school. They have also reorganised how they support these children in school and are looking at their programmes in this regard. If children start school with poor communication and speech and language skills, they have significant difficulties accessing the curriculum.