Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

On international best practice, in my previous role as Chair of the disability committee and anecdotally, across Europe, Scotland in particular was one of the places that developed the best special education system, particularly because it was developed after the devolved government was formed in the late nineties. We went to see what was happening and we saw some great practice and integration. We then met the secretary for education. We spoke about how they developed the Scottish system. She said that, whatever we did, we should not start with Scotland because it had so many challenges. People come to Ireland to see what we are doing, looking at the practice we have developed.

We have a lot of good work on it. We have a long way to go in making sure that we have our full potential reached.

In any of the studies or documentation that one looks at, they talk about 5% of the student population having special educational needs. This is a blunt figure but it is what they are looking at across the developed world. We are less than that at the moment but this is the figure they are looking and it is the figure we are trying to ensure would be within the system. On the basic practices, and going back to earlier comments in the meeting, the lived experience, the information we get from families, and the outcomes we get definitely inspire our policy.

On the transport issue, a lot of work has been done by our team in the Department of education and in Bus Éireann to try to meet the needs of special needs children over the last number of weeks - and right throughout the year as well, as we take applications for school transport right throughout the year. The aim is to have the special class or the special school as local as possible to the students. That also means we have to look at other issues in relation to admissions and so forth and to have regional hubs. We are trying to make sure that people are not travelling long distances. We all know of children who are getting on buses at 7.30 in the morning or beforehand and are not back until four or five o'clock in the evening. That would try the children who do not have complex needs but for children with complex needs it is hugely difficult and hugely challenging.