Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I will be the last speaker. This is my first opportunity to pay tribute to all the teachers for the work they did during the Covid pandemic. My wife is a primary school teacher so I saw the workload when there is teaching from home etc. It was difficult for teachers, particularly those who had children at home. It is important to put that on the record.

Two words have jumped out at me today: inclusion and partnership. If this is going to work, it will involve partnership with all stakeholders, including boards of management in schools, teachers, the Department and the Government funding it. That has to be the case. I will be honest that I fully support the legislation that has been brought in. In my home county of Longford, we do not have an issue regarding places at present, but there have been issues around the country where schools have not engaged. It is important we have a situation where every child in future is able to access education in his or her local community and we do not have situations, which I know of, where some families have to travel 55 km per day each way to access an education. In particular, as we come up to August and the provision of school transport, there is transport to the local school, but when it comes to special education it is provided to the nearest available school. We cannot have a situation like that in future.

The school inclusion model that was spoken about is something I fully support. It is the way forward. There is support for it in the programme for Government and the Government is committed to rolling it out. Unfortunately, Covid put a stop to it for two years. I fully support the ask that mental health services be included in it. I attended the presentation in Buswells Hotel at which the INTO representative, Ms Carmel Browne, spoke about it and asked me to highlight it within my party, which I did. I hope the Government supports it because it is needed.

Special classes and teaching were spoken about. Is it possible, if a teacher is going to work in a special class in September, that such a teacher would automatically work in July provision? This is so they will have four weeks' experience prior to going into a special class, if they have not worked in a special class before. Something that should be looked at, rather than an online course, is a teacher working in person with children for that four-week period.

The issue of special schools not providing summer provision was brought up. That is disgraceful and unacceptable. July provision was brought in a number of years ago particularly for those children and families. We now have a situation where those that need it most are not getting it at all. A situation like that is absolutely unacceptable. I fully support Deputy Harkin's view on ECCE workers working in summer provision. As was stated, many have a level 7 or level 8 master's in education but we have a situation where they are signing on during the summer months, if they are only doing the ECCE year. Yet, we are struggling to have staff to provide summer provision. I personally think summer provision should be in school more so than at home. We are one of the only countries in Europe that does that. The only reason the provision is at home is because we are not getting the people to work it in the schools.

Senator Wall brought something to my attention, and it is being done in Newbridge, which is that schools have come together to make sure that at least one school every year is providing July provision. Staff from the various schools who are available work in that school and it is changed the following year. That is something that needs to happen. We cannot have a situation where at least one school in a town is not providing July provision. That is a very good proposal that should be taken on board to make sure, as I said, we have more provision out there.

The committee plans to have a look at July provision in the autumn following this school year. Unfortunately, I still believe children with most needs, who really need such provision, will not get it this year because of the lack of special schools providing it and because they are unable to supply a teacher to take children for home provision. It is unacceptable and the committee intends to highlight that we need changes for 2023. We cannot have a situation where, for two months, families of children are outside the school system and are not getting speech and language and occupational therapy supports.

Students of speech and language therapy and occupational therapy in our colleges, perhaps in third or fourth year, could work in the July provision and work with teachers, so that kids would get occupational therapy and speech and language therapy during the summer because it is too wide a gap for parents and families.

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee to give their views. As a committee, we plan to make recommendations by the end of March of next year for policy changes. That is what it is about. We want to see those policy changes implemented. Ultimately, we have to look after the kids who have these needs. We thank the witnesses for their input. If there is information they wish to share with the committee, please forward it to us. This is about collaboration and partnership to make sure we get the best for the kids who need support. I thank the representatives from the INTO and the ASTI for coming before us today. It has been very informative and beneficial to all the members of the committee. Would they like to make any comments before we finish up?