Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I am delighted to be on this committee. I moved onto it this week. I am a teacher by profession. I have put down the books for a few years to hopefully serve my county in the Dáil.

I have a few questions that I would like to put to the witnesses. Before coming in here today I read a report by the Regional Educational Laboratory in the US. It identifies that 41% of inmates there have disabilities, many of which are learning difficulties. Some 60% of them have communication difficulties. I would like to know if any empirical evidence has been gathered on the prevalence of learning difficulties among our Irish prison population.