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

I thank the Deputy for her question. It is important to stress at the outset, as the Minister of State with the responsibility for special education, that this year’s budget for special education was €2.6 billion. That was a 10% increase from last year. It is also 27% of the entire education budget. Part of that funding includes support for children and young people in our schools who rely on Braille. I have met the NCBI myself on many occasions to discuss supports for the blind and for the visually impaired.

I can confirm that the Department has in place a service level agreement in place with the charity ChildVision since 2015 to produce Braille books through their reading services area, which was formerly known as the National Braille Production Centre. There is an annual grant of €1.28 million to ChildVision. Through the service-level agreement, ChildVision is provided with the grant to provide transcription services for textbooks into Braille books. As Minister of State, I am acutely aware of and committed to ensuring that all children and young people in our education system who have a visual impairment are provided with the tools they require to access the curriculum, whether this is via Braille books or other technology. In 2023, for example, a new pilot scheme was introduced to allow students who are visually impaired to access their leaving certificate exams in a digital format. I met with the NCBI about that, as well as with Féach.

It is acknowledged in many countries that there are particular challenges in delivering through Braille production and this is also the case in Ireland. There are specialist codes that are used in mathematics, sciences, music and languages, including Irish. Ensuring that texts adhere to the highest standard that is required involves significant quality control. This is a very specialised area and books are produced to order on a case-by-case basis.

See this speech in context