Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be extremely brief. It is about a point I have already made. I thank the witnesses, I have followed some of their contributions. My apologies that I was not here for everything due to the two meetings coinciding.

I wish to make one point which I have made before at the committee. I was a primary school teacher up to 12 months ago. I am hugely concerned about many children attending primary school, particularly children with special needs, at the moment. In recent weeks they have been taught via Zoom, Teams, Seesaw and other online platforms, however some of the other supports that would be typically available during the school year, such as the HSE psychological supports and CAMHS, were not available online. Can someone here respond to that? If teachers, SNAs and other providers of children's needs were able to sit in front of a laptop with a camera and microphone and engage with them, the support agencies should have been able to do that too. That is an example of unmet needs in recent weeks.