Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and her officials for giving of their time. I appreciate that this is a very busy time and that an awful lot of work is being done. Over the past 48 hours in particular but throughout recent months, we have received emails that share how difficult it is for parents at home to cope with children with special educational needs. There has been a cycle of expectation whereby children were going back to school and then not going back to school, and that has been a difficulty. I am delighted, therefore, that the Government concluded its negotiations in this regard yesterday.

For children, there have been both setbacks to their development and regression. It is difficult to read about children self-harming or engaging in aggressive behaviour, let alone to experience it as a parent. One of the emails to which I refer cites an example of photographs of the child at school having to be put away because it was just too traumatic for the child to look at them. Next week will see the return to mainstream schools of children from junior infants to second class. Ideally, we would have a timeline of when we can expect the same for those in third class to sixth class. Could they be brought back in order that there could be special education provision for third class to sixth class in mainstream schools?

Finally, the 50% capacity has been difficult for parents to manage. I would appreciate the Minister of State's views in that regard.