Mr. Tiernan O'Neill:

I thank the Chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of Corpus Christi Primary School and our family centre in Moyross, Limerick. Dr. Liston and I are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this crucial conversation on inclusive education for children with disabilities.

I have spent almost 25 years working in Moyross and can state honestly there is a huge gap between policy and practice when it comes to inclusion. On paper, Ireland has made great strides. We have the NCSE's continuum of support and ambitious statements on inclusion, and every policy document says the right things, but in reality what happens in classrooms and families' lives does not match the promises.

In Corpus Christi School, if it were not for philanthropically funded initiatives like the Sky Is The Limit and HAPPEE, we would we be unable to meet our students' needs. That is not rhetoric; it is fact. These projects are also partly financially supported through the economic and social intervention fund under Limerick Regeneration, a funding stream that comes through the Department of housing and that is now, bizarrely, under imminent threat of ceasing. Rethink Ireland has also supported our therapeutic initiatives, the funding sourced from the Department of rural and community development. Both projects are prime examples of what is possible when philanthropic sources and the Government come together. However, here is the uncomfortable truth: it is not fair or sustainable if children's life chances depend on whether their school can attract philanthropy or whether their teachers have time to fill out endless applications and strategic planning documents and produce financial reports. We spend hours fundraising and pitching just so our children can access therapy and well-being supports. This is time taken away from teaching and learning. No child's access to education should depend on charity or chance.

When schools cry out for flexibility, what we get are more restrictions, the most recent example being the new SNA guidelines for 2025–26. These guidelines, rather than supporting inclusion, risk narrowing it further. They allow for only a six-week application window each year, but children's lives do not fit into a six-week window. New diagnoses, midyear enrolments or changes in circumstances will not wait for reform in September. The guidelines redefine and narrow complex needs, effectively excluding many children whose greatest challenges are behavioural or emotional. Every teacher in the country knows these needs are real. Writing them out of the criteria will not make them disappear.

Schools are told they must provide evidence of use of the new Relate document to qualify for review. Relate has potential to be a powerful tool, but as of now there has been almost no training or embedding. Instead of being a supportive framework, it risks becoming a compliance stick to beat schools with.

Ultimately, the overall framing feels focused on rationing and gatekeeping, not on enabling children's access to support. Parents, teachers, and SNAs were not properly consulted when drafting these guidelines. The fear now is that they will reduce supports, not enhance them. It is but another example of the chasm that exists between policy and the lived reality.

We already know what works. The evidence is clear: children achieve better outcomes when supports are embedded on site in schools. Children feel safer in a familiar environment. Parents engage more willingly with a school than with a clinic, and therapies can be woven into the natural rhythm of the school day. In our school, attendance at occupational therapy and speech therapy is 100%, because those sessions take place in the building. There is no travel, no stigma and no missed appointments. When professionals are based in schools, true multidisciplinary teamwork happens. We sit at the same table, plan together and intervene in the child's real learning environment. That is inclusion in action.

Our national system is out of balance. According to figures from the Department of public expenditure and reform, management and administrative grades in the HSE have grown by more than 35% since late 2019. Meanwhile, families in Moyross and across Ireland wait months and years for therapies. We are drowning in administrators while children go without speech therapy, occupational therapy and counselling. That imbalance is indefensible. Other countries show us what can be done. In Canada, school-based occupational therapy has cut waiting times dramatically while increasing participation. In Australia, teachers are trained to embed basic speech and language strategies into their daily teaching, extending the reach of therapists. In the US, the City Connects programme has shown that wrapping services around children in schools improves academic outcomes and well-being. Ireland should not be lagging behind. The knowledge and evidence already exist. What is missing is the political will to implement consistently.

We also need to face a difficult truth. Placing a child with significant needs into a mainstream classroom without the proper supports is not inclusion; it is setting them up to fail. True inclusion means that resources travel with the child. At present, too many supports are tied to diagnosis, which creates bottlenecks and unnecessary labelling. While children wait on lists, they lose months and years that can never be given back. What children need is support that is available the moment it is clear they are struggling, not months or years later, and not only if they have a formal diagnosis. Inclusion should mean early, flexible and practical help that actually meets children where they are.

In Corpus Christi, through the Sky Is The Limit and our family centre, we have been able to offer therapies, family learning and well-being supports on site. The results are transformative. Children who were written off have re-engaged, families who felt isolated have found connection, and parents who struggled have grown in confidence. However, I must stress this happened only because we fought for it. We fundraised, we applied, we pitched and we begged. That is not how a system should work. No child should depend on bake sales or charity funding for therapy. Every child should have guaranteed access to wraparound support, regardless of where they live or what school they attend.

Too often, the first question becomes “What is the label?” or “What is the diagnosis?” when the real question should be, “What does this child need right now?”. Many of the behaviours we see in classrooms are just as likely to come from trauma, stress or poverty as from a medical condition. Before anything else, children need connection, predictability, and trust. That is what helps them regulate and learn. While technology has its place, especially in the context of accessibility, it cannot take the place of relationships or the basics of learning. Since the Covid pandemic, we have seen the impact of too much screen time, namely falling concentration and weaker social skills. Technology should complement not replace the human connections that really drive growth.

Inclusion is possible. We see it every single day when wraparound supports are in place. Children thrive, families flourish, and teachers feel empowered, but at present too many children are being left behind while schools scramble for philanthropic funding or navigate rigid circulars. If we are serious about inclusive education, the State must stop rationing and start investing. I will finish with words attributed to Gandhi: “You can judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members.”