Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was listening to the witnesses' opening remarks. I apologise, but I was next door at another committee. Rather than detain the witnesses by asking them questions or whatever, I will observe there is a huge body we as a committee need to be looking at.

I have concerns that some children are still losing out big time. Even in the past number of weeks, the number of communications I have got on the special education teaching hours has created confusion. I heard our guest speakers talking about this at the outset but if I was to put it all into a nutshell, we have a big report - pages and pages of it - that nobody understands. Parents do not understand it and do not know how to find and navigate their way through to get services and to be able to understand what is going on. There is a significant communication breakdown between what people perceive or what a committee and a strategy will develop and what is actually required. I do not know if that breakdown is because parents are not being listened to or perhaps parents are not being spoken to. I believe the biggest problem we have with special education is what I might describe as a language barrier. There is a complete gap between what people perceive to be what is needed and what the parents with the lived experience can tell us is not being delivered.

This is not a question but is just a comment.