Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My understanding is that deaf and hard-of-hearing children are getting less support than before under the new SET model. Guidelines for 2024-25 allocate virtually all hours to children who are at the lowest levels in standardised tests. This means the Department now interprets educational needs solely on low scores, without reference to ability or potential. Deaf or hard-of-hearing children who have high levels of ability and potential and who may be achieving scores have no possibility of getting additional SET support to help them to reach that potential.

Research shows those children will continue to fall further behind their potential as they progress through the education system due to the absence of additional supports to help them to keep up with their peers. This reinforces the low-expectations culture in the education system for these children. Compared to Britain, where they publish outcomes and there is a significant deficit, our supports generally are much inferior. For example, the visiting teacher service is at 60% of capacity of Britain and few teachers of deaf children in Ireland have a postgraduate qualification in deaf education compared to virtually 100% in Britain.

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