Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question and for his non-adversarial and constructive approach, which is important. Whatever has happened in the past, we must move forward in a constructive way.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, does a lot of work on the ground with children with special needs. It has its SENOs, who are a close liaison with schools and families. That is probably the best way to implement a local approach. I would suggest that if the Deputy has a particular family in mind, they should get in contact with a SENO in the NCSE. The NCSE will appoint someone if it does not have one already. That is probably the best way because this is what happens in the community and they are the people on the ground. There are other interim supports that we are providing such as online supports. As I said in my earlier contribution, any type of distance learning is not adequate and is suboptimal for children with special needs. We still want to have them attend in person in an in-school environment because that is the best way to teach them. It can be difficult for families to manage to give that teaching without an SNA who is present in the home environment. That is probably the best way to deal with that issue.

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