Mr. Brendan Doody:

I would like to add a quick, additional point on the use of language, which is a really important issue. There are particular sensitivities attached to language. Language is ever-evolving. If we were to look at some of the language that was used in Department notices, circulars etc. in the 1950s, 1960s or even as recently as the 1970s, we would be horrified by some of the terminology. It is important to note that we take account of the latest professional advice in respect of all communications, as Ms Mannion has outlined.

An additional strand of information for us comes from the National Disability Authority, which has published guidelines for everyone in respect of language and use of language. We very much take account of the need to be sensitive about language. Anything we have published in the very recent past such as, for example, the autism guidelines published in 2022, will state upfront that there will be sensitivities about language. As Ms Mannion has said, some people prefer the term, "I am an autistic person". Others will say "I am a person with autism". It is very difficult to square that particular circle. However, taking account of it, acknowledging it etc., is really important.

On the issue of transitions, it is an ambition of the Department to ensure that every student is supported to make the most effective transition to whatever his or her options are after school. This may be to higher education, further education or whatever that may be. We recognise that for students with more complex educational needs, additional support will be required. Students in post-primary schools, for example, will have access to guidance counselling provision. If they are in a DEIS school, they will have enhanced guidance counselling provision. All of that is good and necessary. If you are in a special school, however, you are in a "special primary school" - that is how it is categorised - so you do not have an allocation of subject teachers, as you would have in a post-primary school. However, we are looking at ways of working through that at the moment.

We have launched two programmes in the very recent past, which are still in their infancy. They are both focused on trying to ensure we provide as much support as possible to students who have more complex educational needs to make the best transition for them. In some instances, this transition may be to adult disability services but in others, it may be to further education, to an apprenticeship, perhaps to the world of work or whatever it may be. We want all of them to have the same opportunities as every other student in our system. We have taken a specific action as part of the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities 2015-2024. As part of that, we have provided 20 schools, a cluster of ten in Dublin and a cluster of ten in Galway, with 12 additional teaching hours. We are not calling them guidance hours; we are calling them transition support hours because we are asking the schools to focus their work on the concept of transition from the school into the post-school option. Most of these schools are mainstream post-primary schools, but there are six special schools in this as well. It is very new for a special school to have an allocation of hours dedicated specifically for this purpose. We have provided a full-time co-ordinator for the programme. We have provided the NCSE with additional supports to co-ordinate the programme for us. Business in the community is centrally involved in this programme. Having met all the schools online in the recent past, I would say that there is a very strong welcome among the schools in the first instance for the additional support they will get. Also, they are driven to try to ensure that the students with the most complex needs in their schools are supported.

While this is not a directly intended consequence, an unintended consequence of this programme is likely to be that economic dependency on the State will be removed in respect of some of the students who may otherwise just transition to adult disability services. They have enormous potential and enormous abilities. We want the schools to tap into that and to ensure those students have the best possible options available to them.

A second programme we have launched, which is under dormant accounts, is a partnership programme with an NGO. The Senator might ask why we are launching two programmes that are both focused on transitions at the same time. It actually gives us a very good opportunity to test what approach works most effectively. In the comprehensive employment strategy, CES, transitions programme, we are providing additional teaching hours to the schools. The schools have very much welcomed that. In this other programme, which is with an NGO called WALK based in Walkinstown, there is a very different model. It applies an off-the-shelf, manualised programme, which is their peer learning programme. It does not involve additional teaching hours. The other main difference is that it will follow the student for up to three years after their transition. It will support those young people in their further educational placement, in the world of work, or whatever it is they may go for a further three years, having completed the programme. Both programmes are targeted at students at the senior cycle end of things: either senior cycle in mainstream schools or the senior classes in the special school. There is therefore a lot going on. As I said, this is all in its early stages but were the committee to invite us back this time next year, it is my hope that we would be able to say we have made an awful lot of progress and that students are being well prepared to make really good transitions from their schools.