Results 241-260 of 6,570 for speaker:Michael Moynihan

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: It was remiss of me not to talk about alternative therapies, including equine therapy. I chaired the education committee 20 years ago, and there was discussion about the horse boy method. People in the Middletown centre in the North of Ireland were talking about the information coming from Texas. We are lucky that it has been developed very successfully in Liskennett, which is between...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: We get updates. Heretofore meetings involving the NCSE, the Department of Education and Youth and ourselves to discuss special classes and working through the numbers were taking place every Wednesday. We get information as it becomes available from the Department as to which projects are progressing. Some of the schools and school authorities are reaching out and updating me on the...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The position taken at Government level was that we would put therapists back into special schools and special classes, as well as mainstream classes. That was the fundamental decision. In the school year 2025-26, 45 special schools will be getting therapists. There are a number of pieces we need to do, including in respect of recruitment, appointments, schools and so forth. We are working...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Yes, this year. The decision was made mid-year, even before budgets and everything else, to bring this forward. That has been done. It will be rolled out to those 45 special schools, as I said. That is the initial phase and we will continue from there.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Will the Deputy please reach out to me about those individual issues? We will not be turning water into wine any time soon, but we will try to help.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: I thank Deputy Daly. There are a number of issues here. We got funding for 1,600 additional special needs assistants in the last budget. We will be working with Government again to increase that for 2026-27. I think there are 23,500 special needs assistants within the system at the moment. That has increased by 30% over the past five or six years. We are meeting the needs in it. We are...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Going back a number of months, a huge amount of money is being spent on special education transport. That predominantly relates to children being driven long distances, getting on buses early in the day and not returning until late in the evening. Our aim is to ensure we have an inclusive education system, with children, insofar as is possible, attending schools as near as possible to them....

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: To answer the first question, the more data and information we have the better we can plan. The date of 1 October is crucially important. We need the information if we are going to do this right and have it done in a timely manner. We will work with families. The 120 SENOs, who have been embedded within the communities, will work with the families. If there are reports that are coming or...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: It is hugely important that we have the data. If we are to make changes and improve the situation as we go forward, the more data and information we have the more we can better plan into the future. For whoever is here in years to come, we have to have all the information together so we can be meaningful and reach the targets that we need.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The therapists are being recruited at the moment. I do not think we have any contracts issues. That work started in the past number of weeks. We will be rolling them out the minute we have them recruited and making decisions as to where those 45 schools will be.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: It will be as early as possible in this school year. There is no point in me giving the Deputy a date unless I can stand over it. We are recruiting at the moment. We hope to have those recruitment processes finished as early as possible. When we have that in place we will not be delaying in rolling out the schools.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The occupational therapist, speech and language therapist and behavioural therapist will be in those 45 schools. They will empower the school communities on it. We cannot develop a system where we have a small little bit of therapies going into each place. We want to make sure there are meaningful numbers of therapists going into schools, that they are based in the schools and doing the...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: They might be full-time in some schools depending on the size of the school and depending on the need within the school. They will be employed by the NCSE and it will depend. If we are talking about a large special school, they will not be shared with another school. If we are talking about a small special school that is only in its infancy and starting to develop it might be shared, but...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Yes, absolutely. In the most meaningful way, the outcomes for children with additional needs will be met in an holistic way within the school community.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: We will share that information with the committee. We have no difficulty in doing that.

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: It is with the entire school community. The Deputy will understand more than most that putting therapists back into special schools is not just going to empower the work the therapists are going to do, but will empower the entire school community. The information we got about where the therapists were heretofore was that they felt they had a place to go to ask for advice. The entire school...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: On international best practice, in my previous role as Chair of the disability committee and anecdotally, across Europe, Scotland in particular was one of the places that developed the best special education system, particularly because it was developed after the devolved government was formed in the late nineties. We went to see what was happening and we saw some great practice and...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: On the assessment of needs, as I said earlier there is a huge volume of work being done at Government level because we do understand that this is one major issue in terms of children and additional needs, and that the assessment of need is done in a meaningful and timely fashion. We are working with all Government agencies at the moment to break down the silos in order that...

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: It is my understanding that if a person qualifies for special educational transport the concession does not apply. That is for mainstream. Perhaps the Deputy will share the information with us in relation to the children he spoke about and we will follow it up. I believe that with the education system there is a process-----

Committee on Disability Matters: Inclusive Education for People with Disabilities: Discussion (17 Sep 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Send the information on to us and we will certainly follow it up.