Shane Ross (Independent)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, in which he read, "The Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe is open to listening to proposals from schools where they can demonstrate that it is educationally more beneficial for the pupils involved to be in a special class of their own rather than to be integrated with their peers and supported by the mainstream classroom teacher and the learning resource teacher". Is that a kind of let-out clause? Does it mean the parents or teachers of the pupil to whom I refer in Balbriggan can make representations to the Minister which will allow him to restore the special teaching facilities to which they were formerly entitled?

There was a very noticeable omission in the Minister of State's reading of the script. I do not know if it was deliberate. In the last paragraph the script reads, "The natural sympathy we all have for pupils with special needs and their parents makes it all the more important that we do not cloud facts with emotion". What does that mean and why was it left out?