Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would be very disappointed if the Minister were to sign the regulation. I urge her not to do so. I accept that the Teaching Council is very busy. At times, I am in close contact with the Teaching Council and it has said it has no interest in early years graduates. It does not acknowledge the very specific pedagogy that Maria Montessori afforded us all, and that has informed teacher education formation for all. What impresses me about Montessori graduates is that they have very specific hands-on knowledge of how to work with children in special education needs settings. I was a teacher educator and I know how squashed the programmes are.

While I am pleased that special needs education is a part of all programmes, I do not believe any current teacher education programme has an adequate focus on special education and the range and complexity of needs facing teachers in the classroom. I urge the Minister to consider the matter again. I appreciate that it is not the Minister of State's brief. Thank you very much, a Chathaoirligh, for the time. Does the Minister of State agree with the two-tier approach that is emerging between the 1,000 graduates that have gone through the system that had restricted recognition afforded to them and the new students who are in the system who will not be given any? Another form of discrimination is emerging. Does the Minister of State agree with that?