Ms Catherine Byrne:

This was touched on earlier this morning. To date, there has been no formal, structured analysis of the levels of learning difficulty. It is all anecdotal. In the UK there has been a more structured analysis of this aspect of the matter. There are two kinds of responses, concerning people who have been assessed formally and people with self-declared learning difficulties. In our experience as teachers, we meet people in both categories. We meet people who are aware that they were diagnosed as children with an issue, such as dyslexia. There are also people who feel that they could never learn in school and could never engage with the process, but they always wondered if something was there. This is particularly the case for older people. In the past, there was not the same level of analysis of learning difficulties as is probably happening now.

Anecdotally, it is assumed that there are big numbers and a higher proportion of people.