Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry that I was late. I have a couple of questions. I spent 15 years as a teacher and I am still in touch with quite a few of my former colleagues. I am acutely aware of the difficulties schools are having in terms of resourcing capacity to accommodate refugees. All schools, to be fair, are putting their shoulder to the wheel, and they are getting on with it and making it work as best they can.

I wish to focus on education provision and capacity issues in particular. I am from an area on the north side of Cork city, which heads east towards towns like Carrigtwohill, Midleton and on to Youghal. The vast majority of secondary schools in those areas were already over-subscribed even before Ukrainian refugees became an issue. Are there any other pinch-points across the country where there are significant shortfalls in capacity that the witnesses could identify, be it parts of Dublin or other large urban centres? Where in particular are we struggling to accommodate students?

To be fair to Senator Flynn, she mentioned the special education provision. We are all acutely aware of the issues in that regard. Deputy Ó Laoghaire and I spent three hours at a briefing with the HSE yesterday. A good chunk of that time was spent dealing with issues related to disability provision and therapies, or the lack of them. Even if the refugees have an identified need for speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy or whatever the case may be, what is the likelihood that they will get to avail of the support, given the pressures we already have?

My third point relates to the Ombudsman's office. Have there been any complaints and, if so, what is the nature of the complaints? What are people saying about the educational provision that is being provided so far? Do the witnesses have any idea how many complaints have been made?

If time allows, I will ask one last question about a student's ability to learn. Ms Ward touched on the impact in terms of students who come from direct provision or emergency accommodation. If she has time, she could elaborate on that as well.