Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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That creates that particular issue we spoke about earlier, that is, trying to deal with children who have been suspended or put out of school, particularly children with more challenging needs. There is no consistency across the board. I accept the difficulties in some of those circumstances so that would be useful.

I will put the witnesses back on the spot. I asked the question with 30 seconds on the clock last time. I ask about the issue of suspensions and expulsions, particularly around challenging behaviour. I accept that, in some cases, schools are missing out on the therapies, the assessments and all the pieces that should be in place beforehand that could reduce some of the frustration that children sometimes have and deal with some of these issues. We need a way to deal with it, and it needs to be fair across the board – fair to teachers, SNAs and principals, but also fair to families and, specifically, children.