Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The NCSE guidelines need to be updated to ensure there are no further worries about what people believed were the changes introduced. We do need to look at some element of flexibility in dealing with specific children like Tiernan. He is registered blind and has a propensity to break bones. We can all imagine the difficulties that exist and we talking about a four-year-old child. The circumstances could improve in the future and he may need fewer resources. At this point in time he is lucky that the ASD class has not yet opened. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State will engage with the review process.

It probably should not have come to this House, but if we could have that happen as quickly as possible and deliver a positive result his mam, the principal and everyone else would be especially happy with that. Then we could provide the child with the necessary school framework in which he can learn. I want to put on record a letter that was written before the child was there. It was written by a visiting teacher for young people who are blind or vision impaired who was very concerned about the fact the school had told Tiernan's mother they were not in a position to provide SNA support for him. The visiting teacher stated:

Tiernan has a significant visual impairment and he also has a medical condition whereby his bones break very easily. He is coming from a nine child preschool room with full level 7 Aims support into a Junior Infant classroom of over 30 children with no additional support. Tiernan has blind registration and aside from the fact that he is going to have great difficulty navigating such a big classroom, if he trips and falls, he has the added danger that he could have a serious bone break.

There had been NCSE correspondence before but it was the usual stuff about the SNA resources; in other words, not an individualised resource but a school allocation to be deployed to children who have significant primary care needs. That is not a good enough answer. As I said, we need to ensure this process happens speedily and that Tiernan is provided with the supports he should have.

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