Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 25 June 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Special Needs Education: Impact of Covid-19

Mr. Mark O'Connor:

It is definitely something that is coming up. There is a cohort of children that is moving from supported preschools, either in the mainstream via access and inclusion model, which is an excellent system, or through specialist early years provision. If they are moving into specialist provision in primary school, they will have access to the summer scheme. Let us look at that from a human rights perspective. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Ireland has ratified, is very much focused on mainstream education as the route we need to go down, yet the Department provides that a child who goes down the mainstream route to education will be denied this vital support. I will hand over to my colleague, Ms Dempsey, at this point.

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