Mr. Mark O'Connor:

On the issue of othering, one of the biggest segregated groups in the Irish education system is children with additional needs. The attitudinal report that is done regularly by the National Disability Authority shows that only one third of people are comfortable having children with psychosocial disabilities in the same class as their child and more than one quarter of people do not believe they belong in those classes. Those attitudes carry on into the rest of their lives. People are less comfortable living beside disabled people and less comfortable working with them, and those attitudinal pieces really need to be tackled. We know from international research that it is leading to greater levels of bullying of children with disability in schools.

When we go back to the original research from many years ago around groups, it only took the flip of a coin to set groups apart when people all of a sudden felt part of one group to the exclusion of the other group. Children with disabilities, who number in excess of 20,000, are seen as the others within the schools and special school provision. To address that, and this committee has looked at the issue, requires a movement towards a more inclusive education system, and working on those attitudes at the systemic level is something that will help children with additional needs in regard to bullying.