Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have this opportunity to outline to the House the position on the issue raised by the Senator. All children in the primary system who have been assessed as having special educational needs, including children with dyslexia, have an automatic entitlement to a response to their needs, irrespective of their level or location. The nature and level of the support provided are based on the professionally assessed needs of the individual child.

Children with dyslexia are generally catered for on an integrated basis in ordinary primary schools where they can be supported by the learning support or resource teacher service. There are over 2,300 resource teachers – whole-time equivalents – and 1,531 learning support teachers in the primary system.

Where the condition is of a more serious nature, provision can be made in one of the four special schools or 23 special classes attached to ordinary primary schools dedicated to the needs of children with dyslexia. Decisions on placements are based on the professionally assessed needs of the individual child and parental wishes in relation to their children.

Review and assessment of the adequacy of educational provision and support services in mainstream and special classes and schools are carried out as part of the normal work of my Department's inspectorate. All special schools and classes dedicated to children with dyslexia operate at a reduced pupil-teacher ratio of 9:1. Pupils attending such facilities attract a special increased rate of capitation funding. Additional resources are allocated to individual second level schools to cater for special needs pupils enrolled in these schools. Applications for resources are referred to the national educational psychological service and each case is considered on its merits.

My Department also provides funding for schools for the purchase of specialised equipment such as computers to assist children with special needs with their education, including children with dyslexia. Grant aid is also provided for the Dyslexia Association of Ireland to support its work with persons with dyslexia.

The report of the task force on dyslexia contains over 60 individual recommendations ranging across a wide variety of issues from identification and assessment, to models of service delivery, specialist training for service providers, to issues relating to structural reforms. Since the task force reported, a number of initiatives have been taken in the area of dyslexia. These include: the introduction of the first ever on-line training course for teachers catering for pupils with dyslexia; the appointment of ten new learning support trainers to the primary curriculum support programme specifically to provide in-depth support for the implementation of learning support guidelines for children with dyslexia; and a reduction from 11:1 to 9:1 in the pupil-teacher ratio applicable to special classes catering for children with dyslexia.