John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I concur with the Minister of State on the quality of the teaching personnel who are being produced by our teaching colleges. I just think we need more of them. We genuinely need to review that. There are gaps and vacancies that will not be filled in September. I am concerned about that and I think we need to expand the number of teacher training places.

I will bring two other points to the floor fir discussion with the Minister of State, one being the categories of classes for children with additional needs. The Minister of State and I had a meeting about this yesterday with parents from the Down Syndrome Ireland Galway branch who are concerned that there is not a sufficient number of the different categories of classes for children with additional needs being provided. In County Galway, for example, there are only two classes for children with mild general learning disabilities. County Galway is the second largest geographical county in the island. It is not fair that children have to travel extensive distances to attend the appropriate class.

I am sure the Minister of State will be aware of the review conducted by the inspectorate of the admissions policies of primary and post-primary schools for autistic children and young people. That review expressed some concerns. In its findings, the inspectorate used the term "concerning", and the main concern was that policies in some schools, if they were implemented as written, could prevent children with the greatest level of need from accessing a place in a class for children with additional needs.

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