Ms Derval McDonagh:

Like Mr. Harris said, we are moving from a system that has been underfunded and under-resourced and that is a huge concern. That is not to deny that post-primary needs to be resourced properly as well.

As for the STEM course, that is a narrow focus on education and education access and we have concerns in this regard. In respect of the complex needs, we all agree that we must move on from that terminology and language. We must move to the social model of disability in which disabled children are described in ways that are more meaningful, that respect them as rights holders, and that look at the accommodating rights they should have in accessing their right to education, rather than labelling them with complex needs. However, we need to capture it, somehow, in the current system and this is how it is allocated.