Ms Martina Mannion:

Yes. The Deputy talked about 2.9% of people having exemptions in 1999. The Minister touched on it a little bit but it is important that we say it was not effectively until 1998 that the extent of special education was recognised in this country. The Minister referenced 104 special education teachers and 229 special needs assistants, SNAs. It was not that those children did not have needs; it was that we did not resource and support those children’s needs through our system. We have a completely different understanding from what we had in 1999. I have been working on the area of special education for more than 20 years. Even how we understand special education in 2022 is light years away from how we understood it ten years ago.