Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am hugely frustrated by Mr. Kenny’s answer. The Department is not a stakeholder, and the SEC sits as an independent body within the Department. We talked at length in the previous session about the lack of joined-up thinking between the good work the Department is doing, such as introducing technology, trying to support students with mobility and trying to increase supports to schools, that falls down when the students come to exams, which is the main barrier to their proceeding to tertiary education. It is, first, very frustrating that the review does not seem to be as progressed as I was led to believe and, second, it is very frustrating that the Department would continue to take such a hands-off approach with a group that is vulnerable in terms of education. It is important that they are engaged and active when it comes to the review of how we undertake exams because there is a very real barrier here. I refer the reasonable accommodation of ten minutes per hour. Anyone who has ever dealt with a child who has a BrailleSense knows it takes ten minutes to boot up the machine and it takes ten minutes to delete something and redo it. It seems extraordinary that it is such a hands-off approach. It undermines the Department's other work.