Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start with the last question regarding school transport. The waiving of school transport fees was introduced as a cost-of-living measure. This time last year over 103,000 children in mainstream education were availing of it. Presently 124,000 tickets are available free of charge to families. That is an increase of over 20% of children availing of the school transport system. That is a considerable benefit to families. I am talking in general rather than about the specific area of special education that the Deputy has raised, as he raised both. I do not want any family to be discommoded. That has never been the intention. Some families find themselves outside the criteria for the provision of mainstream school transport and have availed of concessionary school transport in the past. It is interesting to note that even concessionary school transport has seen an increase of one third. That is notwithstanding that some families have been affected where others have become eligible and they are not. However, in the greater scheme of things, 124,000 families are availing of free transport, notwithstanding that we are still working through some issues.

The Deputy is 100% right that there have been extraordinary learnings from the pandemic. I visit many schools who say that in many instances, the pandemic pushed us on almost five to ten years as regards our learnings and things we might have expected to have taken a long time to get across the ground. We are now in a much better position, notwithstanding the sadness and challenges that the pandemic obviously brought. However, we have seen positive steps in the areas of technology, remote teaching and learning and in how we have managed exams in the past while, as well as how best practice and learning has been incorporated for the benefit of students. That will obviously be a guiding principle going forward.

The Deputy referenced the needs of the child. I could not agree with him more. The education sector serves the student and it must take a child-centred approach and I agree 100% with the Deputy and appreciate that he made that point. Everything else is a service around it and that is the objective. Everything we are doing in education, whether specifically in the area of special education or in senior cycle reform, is all about putting the student at the centre. When we talk about the child-centred approach, I wish to be clear that in general, never before has the student voice sat at the centre of all that we do. Students are articulating on behalf of students. Students are part of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, NCCA, for the first time ever. We are very focused, and I am particularly focused, on ensuring that the student is at the centre, and remains at the centre, of all that we do.

I should have asked the Deputy at the outset to give me details of those specific cases that he raised around school transport so that I can follow up on them.

The Deputy asked who is charged with ensuring that the universal design for learning is the way it should be.

There are two aspects to it in that there is the universal design from a building point of view but there is also teaching methodology. Within the Department, obviously the principles of universal design are embedded in every aspect of the Department's work. In terms of guidance that is given for building projects, including the large-scale ones, those where additional classroom space is being made available or the reconfiguration of space specifically to meet the needs of children with additional needs, all are guided by universal access and there is a universal design process there for all of that.