Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and it must be targeted to the right place and prioritised. We cannot allow what is happening with career guidance to continue. People are not fulfilling their potential because they do not have the right career guidance. We can have all the apprenticeship programmes we want, along with all the other alternatives, but it will not matter if there is appropriate career guidance personnel to talk through choices with individual students about where their strengths lie.

The INTO submission refers to special classes in mainstream education and students with particular needs. We talk about selecting students at second level and all of that. Students are being selected at five years old when it comes to the question of special classes. We have two excellent special classes in County Mayo, with seven pupils in each class. There is one in Ballina and one in Castlebar. There is a major demand for those. That may arise because children have not got the supports in audiology or speech and language therapies through no fault of their own. The competition is nominally for seven places but it can amount to perhaps six places between the two because the full cohort of students is not replaced each time. It is totally wrong. We are excluding children at five years old from our education system.

That is why reform is needed throughout the system and not just at leaving certificate level. I was glad to see that mentioned in the INTO submission as a challenge. It is purely a question of resources. In speaking to people at these schools, I know they and other schools would be happy to have these special classes with speech and language elements but they do not have the resources. They are being refused those resources, which is wrong. I know the wonderful outcomes that can come from those classes. They can be life-changing and there is no other way to describe them. I commend those schools that do such a good job in that sense.

It is invaluable to hear from the student representatives and I thank them for giving their time today. As a committee, we will listen to what the witnesses say about the needed reform.