Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a new concept I was not completely aware of, namely, that we have 63 specific speech and language disorder, SSLD, classes in the country, which are speech and language classes for children with very set criteria who have verbal dyspraxia. There are seven in a class with the lead teacher and a speech and language therapist. They know that with regular daily intervention over a two-year programme, the child's speech can come on. There is no doubt that is the case. The clinical outcomes of the classes are incredibly successful. In fact, the therapists in those schools come under the remit of primary care and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. I will be appealing to him and to the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, to step up these classes because they are critical from a primary intervention point of view, as opposed to specialist disabilities.

We must also seek to widen the use of the 2007 circular. That circular omits the fact that children with Down's syndrome can participate in these classes. It does not include them or see them as being part of mainstream education. That is also the case with children with physical disabilities. When we talk about the UNCRPD and mainstreaming, the SSLD classes should be expanded to more than 63 schools but they also should be expanded to include children with Down's syndrome and physical disabilities. That is my appeal to the two Ministers for budget 2025.

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