Ms Eithne Walsh:

Good morning. I am here representing Féach, which is a charity that supports parents of blind and visually impaired students. We have been around for about 35 years and we work a lot in the education space. I am also the mother of two blind children who are in college. We are here today to talk about the issues facing blind and visually impaired students in education. What I am keen to point out from the very start is that, while there are issues, there are supports in the education system that could really alleviate these issues. Ireland fares quite well with some of the supports it gives our students. We give our students very good technology; they have access to a typing grant, to summer provision and to special education teachers. Despite these supports, however - and the reason we are here is all because of the however - how a student does is often very hit and miss. It can depend on whether a teacher will go the extra mile; whether the school is able to reach out to these support services; whether the school can find someone to give a typing grant, or whether someone can do summer provision. What we are finding more and more is how well a student does depends on how well their parent can advocate for them. This does not need to be the case.

I will go through the three things Féach thinks are the big barriers at the moment. First, although students are getting really good technology, if you give a student technology but do not give the schools the supports they need to ensure the student can access the curriculum independently, it is a waste of that technology. It leads to poorer outcomes for the students and above all it leaves them very dependent on their SNAs. I can totally understand how this has happened. This technology has burst on to the scene in the last 15 years. It has totally changed how we operate. However, no system has been put in place to ensure the students have the skills to access the curriculum independently or the teachers the skills to support them.

Second, orientation and mobility are not really embedded in the curriculum in school. If we look at Europe, the UK and America, we see that orientation, mobility and independence specialists visit the children at home and in school throughout their education.

They upskill them so that they are constantly independent and able to be fully integrated within education. What happens in Ireland? In Ireland, this happens in three counties in Munster because we set up a pilot project 20 years ago. That runs alongside the orientation and mobility offering made by Vision Ireland and those two work really well for those three counties. However, let us take away the offering in Munster and see what the rest of the country has. It has the offering from Vision Ireland. Vision Ireland's case workers have more than 200 people on their list and their remit is wider than orientation and mobility. If we look at the UK, it has an orientation and mobility specialist who only deals with that and who has 45 to 75 people maximum. Therefore, the students in the rest of the country are not getting the service they need to be independent and integrated into school.

Third, summer provision is a really innovative system that I do not think is available anywhere else in Europe. We might imagine that people have 40 hours to catch up on all these additional skills, such as cane training, braille and technology, during the summer months. The issue is that schools cannot get teachers to teach them, and if they do find teachers, they do not have the skills they need to teach the students. It is an absolutely great programme, but our kids cannot utilise it.

Therefore, what are we looking for? We are looking for three things, the first of which is technology. We have to put a system in place whereby the teachers are able to support the students to learn independently. This is going to involve some bespoke interventions by the service providers at key times in their education because every child with a visual impairment learns differently. However, everything must be available to put this into action. Second, the orientation and mobility programme that is available in Munster and paid for by the Department of Education has to be made available in the rest of the country. Then, everybody will have a fair chance of integration and being completely independent. Third, we have to let the service providers that have the specific skills to support the students provide the summer provision in line with the way the schools are doing it, as the schools cannot do it. If we take this team approach to our kids and use the service providers to fill the deficit of skills and knowledge in the education system, we will actually ensure that these school supports hit their targets and, most of all, we will ensure that the Government gets value for money for its technology. We will ensure that the students are not dependent on their special needs assistants, SNAs. More than anything, however, I think what we all want is that the students reach their potential.

Before I wrap up, because I am sure I am nearly running out of time, I ask that as members go into the next committee meeting, they hold all these testimonies in place because they going to hear about how €2 billion has been spent on special education. None of that matters if the supports cannot be utilised by these groups of people. I ask members to keep their eyes on that. I am not someone who is misinformed. I am telling members of the lived experience of people out there. I thank the committee very much for giving us this opportunity.