Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I am glad to hear that there has been some resolution to this issue and it is planned to place the form on the NCSE website. However, I am very conscious that it is Wednesday and schools are finishing on Friday with most of them taking a half-day.

The form needs to be signed by a school principal before it is processed at the next stage. I am looking for some commitment that allowance will be made. Some students are being told they will have to buy books until their forms are processed, which is crazy because it is incurring an unnecessary expense when they will only use the books for six to eight weeks. As they clearly need the assistive technology, the books will be redundant in the first place.

It is great if it is on the website today but that only gives people a day and a half to get their applications signed by a principal and submitted. If students cannot get the form signed until September the schools should not make them buy books. The Department can advise schools not to operate that system. We are looking for a commitment that that will not happen. I do not see how all these forms can be printed off and signed in a day and a half. The timeframe is very tight for primary school students.

See this speech in context