Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing me to raise this important matter on the Adjournment.

Ronan Jordan was born on 1 June 1998 and lives at 9 Fenian Road, Ballina, County Mayo. Individual assessment of Ronan was conducted in a Montessori school setting over four separate sessions, the most recent of which took place on 7 April 2003. With the permission of the House, I wish to read from the report on an assessment of Ronan carried out by Sinead Quinn, a psychologist with the Western Health Board. It states:

Throughout the assessment, Ronan presented as a highly distractible child with a very limited attention span. Behavioural difficulties were also evident in the form of general non-compliance with the assessment process. The significance of Ronan's speech and language difficulties was also evident during assessment. His speech was frequently difficult to understand even with contextual clues. Ronan's class teacher, whom he knows for approximately two years, reports that she can continue to experience difficulty understanding him at times. Given the extent of Ronan's speech and language difficulties, it is also likely that Ronan experienced some difficulty understanding the standardised language used as part of the assessment process.