Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. We all acknowledge that many great advancements have been made in the past decade in special needs provision for children. I welcome the 390 additional posts in this regard. However, there remains an issue of resources across the country, as there are black spot areas in Dublin, Dublin West and north Kildare in particular. One school enrolled two junior infant classes at the commencement of last year, totalling 54 children. Half way through the academic year, it came to the attention of the school authorities that three children had challenging needs. From the initial consultations with the parents in 2013, it was obvious that this was the case. It came as no surprise to the school, as an assessment of needs was carried out for one of the children involved. During the course of the academic year, it became apparent to the principal that there was a problem with securing resources for these children. The parents of one child secured an assessment of needs, as a consequence of which the child received 4.2 hours per week of low-incidence teaching. Half way through this year, the other two children are still awaiting their assessments. The first year of their educational lives has been lost because they lack the critical supports they require to participate successfully.

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