Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their input. Based on what Ms Byrne has said there, we seem to be in favour of moving towards an inclusive education system, obviously rights based, which is the right way to go.

That brings me to the UN committee that works with states on the implementation of the UNCRPD, which has a view that the progressive realisation of an inclusive education system is inconsistent with maintaining two separate systems, namely, a general education system and a special education system. Will the witnesses tell us what their view of that analysis is? Listening to them, we are moving towards an inclusive education system and I am just curious about that. They mentioned the implementation plan for ten years. Is it really going to take us that long? I would like to think we could move much quicker, but obviously it has to be UNCRPD-compliant as well, which is very important. Universal design for learning was also mentioned. Will the witnesses explain what is meant by that?