Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. This is a question that she raised today during Questions on Policy or Legislation. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, for being here, and I thank the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, who cannot be here, in advance for his written response. I hope that, based on this, he can meet us and other Deputies about this issue, since I know it is an issue he is interested in.

The Department of Education has a policy of opening special classes for children with additional needs whose needs are not being met in mainstream classes. The 3,336 special classes open at the moment are mainly for children with autism. We need more of them, we need to get better at opening them and we need a system of forward planning based on our current projections of children who require additional supports. What I do not understand is why the Department of Education therefore no longer supports the opening of new reading schools or classes. I believe no such classes have been opened since 2017. In fact, there are only 14 reading classes and four special schools nationally for children with severe dyslexia. This is simply not enough. In an ideal world, the right educational supports could be made available to children in a mainstream setting. I recognise the work and increase in the number of special education teachers all across the country, but the reality of those supports is different in the classroom. Those supports are severely stretched. Families, Dyslexia Ireland and National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, psychologists want reading classes and reading schools to be opened. In my experience, there are families who feel, even with the right educational supports, that intensive intervention in a specialised class focusing on literacy and reading skills for up to two years is an all-round more inclusive approach and experience than children coming in and out of classrooms with a special education teacher. They do not see a reading class or a reading school as a failure of inclusion; they see it as an enabler of inclusion in the long term. We ask the Minister to look again at this policy and at opening reading classes for children with severe dyslexia.

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