Dr. Joanne Banks:

I want to respond to the point on the increased funding in the area of special education and the special education budget more generally. We are 20 years on from EPSEN and it is 20 years since the profile or the demography of our classrooms changed with the inclusion of students with special educational needs. In saying that, we lagged behind quite significantly and it is worth pointing out that with a lag, we are going to get what looks like a dramatic increase after that lag. That is the first point I would make.

The second point is around the increase in spending. Over 20% of the education budget goes to special education funding and the bulk of that spending is on special education teachers. It is important to point out that a special education teacher is one of our teaching staff. They have no specific special education qualification and they are just one of our teaching staff who, through the initial teacher education model, is fully equipped to teach a classroom of children and hopefully develop that over their school career, in that every teacher is a teacher of all children rather than just a special education teacher.

It is important to point out the lack of evaluation of how budgets are spent at school level. Equally, there is a need for evaluation of the programme of special needs assistants, looking at the quality of what is being delivered within the budget that is spent rather than the quantity. We have no idea of the impact of having a designated special education teacher on the outcomes of the students. We have never sat down and decided what the outcomes of the students are and what we intend them to be. What does progression look like for those students? What do post-school pathways look like for students with special educational needs and, importantly, for students in mainstream special classes and in special schools? It is very important to understand, when we are investing in these students, that we have goals and that we have quality education at its core in terms of numeracy, literacy and all other aspects of our education, social and otherwise.

With regard to Ireland's special education budget, in other European countries and globally, part of the special education budget is about building capacity among our school leaders. In every research study that we have undertaken in the past 20 or 30 years, school leadership is key to creating an inclusive classroom environment and inclusive school environment. We need investment in the capacity building of school principals who perhaps, on receipt of an allocation, do not fully understand how to spend it, where to spend it and what level of accountability they should have on that spend. This is very important. I know school principals have a lot on their plate but building capacity might relieve some of the pressures they are experiencing with regard to the administration of special education.