Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Complex needs will not be captured by standardised tests. That is the crux of the argument as to why this is a poor mechanism for categorising complex needs. A multitude of different complex needs are individualised to students within the school setting. That will not be captured under the new model. I again assure the Minister of State that I did not wake up this morning and decide to come in and challenge her on this. It is the teachers, parents and others who have absolute belief in the students concerned who motivated me to raise this issue. There is a multitude of different ways in which the data will not be captured.

The Minister of State said she engaged in consultation with education partners, which would include, for example, the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO. I presume that if there was a comprehensive consultation, the teacher unions would have been involved in it. However, the INTO has highlighted that in not considering complex needs, children who are homeless, at risk or in care and residential settings, students who are new to the State and those who speak a lesser standard of English than others in the classroom, those children will be less well off under the new model. The Minister of State says there was consultation, but consultation is not having a little meeting around a table and then going off and doing what she will. That is not consultation. She is wrong here.

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