Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the significant spending by the Department of Education on special needs, and that is very much to be welcomed. I am still very concerned about the reply the Minister of State has given because while he talked about the rise in applications in 2021, both situations I have spoken about have been going on for years, one since 2018. Every year the pupil is told to reapply. In the first case I spoke about, the child concerned is going through a third examination. At this stage, the assistive technology would have been paid for. The family has already paid for an assessment.

While I welcome the fact that there is a review and that a working group has been established to progress it, the young man I am talking about is one of the 190 ongoing applications and it is vital that he gets the necessary supports. I accept the Minister of State has said that if I give him the details he will pass them to both the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. I hope he has more luck than I did. I have spoken to both of them one to one, sent emails and spoken with their secretaries and I have not had any success with this. I certainly hope the Minister of State fares better.