Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are three strands, if the Deputy wants to break it down into specifics. There is a health-based strand, and I am working very closely with the Minister, Deputy Harris, and his officials are working closely with mine, with regard to children with complex medical needs. There are potentially 600 students in that category. I am meeting the Minister, Deputy Harris, at 3 p.m. to go through the work we have done and to come up with a roadmap for those children.

There is also the traditional July provision, which 10,000 students availed of last year, and that has been the average for the past couple of years. Some 70% of those were based at home and 30% were based in school. I want to add to that July provision and, in particular, I want to ensure that those with Down’s syndrome are included as they were not included before. That is additionality to the July provision which is going to be new. I want to re-emphasise that there are many students with specific disabilities in the mainstream. They are not going to be excluded and they will be included also.

The third strand is disadvantage, which I know is the Deputy’s specific concern. We are looking at school completion and literacy and numeracy at both primary and secondary level. There are 70 DEIS schools in the literacy and numeracy programme and we want to add to that. That is another area of additionality.

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