Ms Derval McDonagh:

I am sure my colleagues can add to my contribution. I thank the Senator for her questions. On her point relating to special education teacher allocations, we share concerns about the roll-out of these changes to the allocation model. We have raised these concerns with the Minister and the Department of Education. There are a couple of matters of particular concern. First, there was no consultation with the people this will affect most, namely, children and their families. That should not be the case in the roll-out of any allocation model or changes to any allocation model. There are obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as the public sector duty of State bodies to consult and engage directly with disabled children and their families. That is one concern about the communication in this regard. Of course, when a circular lands in the system and there are already immense concerns about the child's experience in school and right to access education, any perceived change will create a lot of fear within the system. There needs to be consultation directly with people when significant changes are made.

The second piece is that we are concerned about the rationale for the changes being made to the allocation model. There are concerns at the removal of certain criteria because children with more complex needs - that is the language that is being used - are actually being supported in special classes and special schools and do not, therefore, have a requirement for access to special education teachers within the mainstream.

We are concerned about the language around that. We have direct engagement with the Department and the Minister with Inclusion Ireland. We are meeting the Department again on Monday to get further information about this and we will communicate publicly after that once we have been assured of the effect it will have on children. We are concerned about children starting in school in September and what that means to them. Any reduction in any allocation for any child is unacceptable, given the fact that Inclusion Ireland ran a survey just three weeks ago. Approximately 500 families responded to it. In that survey, only 14% of children are thriving in school. Approximately 10% of children are refusing to go to school every day due to anxiety. There are many issues. Any reduction in supports will have a significant ripple effect across the system. I thank the Senator for asking that question. We will engage further with the Department over the next few days to discover more about that.

The Senator referred to the willingness of schools to be inclusiveness. This speaks to school leadership. Dr. Banks touched on that in her response earlier. Everything comes down to school leadership and creating inclusive environments. We know that many schools are on that pathway. We hear from those schools every day. We also hear about schools that are not on that pathway yet. I wholeheartedly agree with the Senator on the section 29 issue. When we have reached that point, something has gone deeply wrong for the child and family. Our question is about how we can create a culture where all children are welcome and embraced in their local school and where that local school is resourced. When I say "resourced", it is not just about the allocation of SNAs and special education teachers; it is also about training, supporting school leadership and developing inclusive cultures. Once we have got to that stage of using section 29, we have failed that child and family, which is not good enough.

I thank the Senator for her question about the transition points for children. They are particularly delicate. I hear the concerns about a child transitioning from a mainstream primary school. It is then suggested that they will have to go to a special school when they go to a secondary school. That says to children that they do not belong in that school and need to be supported elsewhere. The Senator rightly mentioned how things could have been difficulty with the correct supports. There are delicate points in children's education journey where we need to be there to support them and their families to make that transition easily and carefully. Ms Byrne has spoken about the transition point when children leave secondary school and that delicate time in the life of children and young people. I thank the Senator for her questions.