Ms Martina Mannion:

We want to make sure we can answer it as fully as possible. The Senator hit the nail on the head with her earlier description of how we want children to thrive and not just survive. That is, in essence, the definition of a fully inclusive system. It is really at the heart of what we do. We want to make sure that every child is in a placement that meets their needs and that the placement is resourced and supported to meet the individual needs of children.

The important thing about the special education system is that we are really trying to ensure that, wherever the placement is, in line with what the parents wish, it is best supported. For example, in mainstream, there are teachers and SNAs who support the 97% of children in mainstream settings. We talked earlier about the big increase in special classes and special schools. My colleague Mr. McLoughlin can talk about the work that we have done on forward planning and the very large increases in those classes. We hate to hear stories of children in placements that are not working and that break down. Children are obviously in dire straits when, as the Senator described, they end up in hospital. That is absolutely not a system that anybody wants to be involved in. We want to make sure we support children. I might talk about how we do that. I will ask Mr. McLoughlin to give the Senator some information on how we have expanded our additional special provision so that any child who needs a special class or special school can get it.

The Senator spoke about how we support parents. It is important to talk about the role of the NCSE. It is truer today than ever before that the NCSE needs to have bodies on the ground. They are people who can engage directly with parents and schools. That is the role of the SENO. In budget 2023, we had a significant increase in funding. We increased the number of staff in the NCSE by 161. We almost doubled the budget. The thinking behind that was that when the NCSE was set up in 2003, it had the same number of SENOs as in 2023, even with the increased incidence rate of autism and the growth of special education. In effect, it was nigh impossible for those SENOs to get to every parent who needed it.

Right now, there is a big recruitment campaign going on for additional SENOs across the NCSE. The Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, announced that maybe a week or two weeks ago. That will get those additional people in on the ground. That is the support that a parent will have. That is where parents will be able to go to ensure that their children who need a special class, special school, or support in mainstream have a dedicated resource outside the school system to support them to do that. The benefit of that is that there will be more people on the ground. That will be felt more acutely as we go through. I might ask Mr. Doody to talk about how we will support those behaviours of concern that the Senator talked about.

The Senator spoke about reasonable accommodations. Today is an exciting day because 70,000 children have received their junior certificate results. There was great excitement in houses around the country. The reasonable accommodations at certificate examinations, RACE, scheme is an important component of supports for children who are doing the State exams. As the Senator knows, that scheme was changed in 2017. It moved away from a diagnostic-based process and is now driven by the school. It is about the needs of the child, in line with our broader special education policy, and ensuring those accommodations are carried across into our system. For example, a wide variety of reasonable accommodations are available depending on the needs of the child and whether children are visually impaired, hearing impaired or have dyslexia, including enlarged versions of papers, modified papers, Braille versions, individual readers, reading assistance, exam pens, word processors and additional time. I am just giving a flavour of the kinds of additional supports that are available.

The number of candidates availing of the RACE scheme has increased significantly. In 2019, 17% of candidates availed of the RACE provision across junior certificate, leaving certificate and leaving certificate applied. That was 20,000 candidates. In 2022, it went up to 25,000 candidates, or 19% of the total. This year, our colleagues in the State Examinations Commission state there are now over 34,000 accommodations going to 28,000 candidates, which is 22% of all students, in addition to the 9,000 special centres. The important thing about the RACE scheme is that the accommodations that people get at junior certificate now carry through to leaving certificate. That is important because, previously, people had to reapply, which was obviously a great source of concern for parents.