Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We got provision for an additional 17 educational psychologists in the budget. Overall, there are 120 of them. Their work is primarily targeted at children with special needs. When I took over this role, one of the aspects of which I was most acutely aware was that of children with special needs and the extra anxiety and well-being issues that might have arisen for them in terms of going back to school, especially from a regression perspective. The July provision was accessed by 15,000 children, an increase of 9,000 on last year - 24,000 were actually eligible for it - and it assisted those with special needs to integrate back into the school environment. All the progress the reports they would have received during that period were provided.

The Minister will agree that well-being was at the heart of the entire reopening of the schools. Of the €447 million that was provided, a huge amount went towards reducing potential anxiety for children. There are a lot of well-being resources, tool kits and webinars, and inductions for teachers. Again, the budget has provided an increased amount for an extra 400 teachers for special educational needs, which will also assist. We have a school inclusion model that will help to reduce children's anxiety around it. The best interests of the child within the Covid environment is always at the heart of it, and we are always aware of it.

As mentioned earlier, if there are children who are very high risk and who, for whatever reason, cannot go back into the school environment, tuition and assistance is available for them. We constantly monitor all of those situations.