Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is important to acknowledge that the Minister of State initiated the summer programme, which is something that needed to be done a long time ago but now is done. I thank her for that. It is a programme that is very important and one that is evolving and improving every year.

Before I talk about the summer programme, I want to sincerely thank the Minister of State for the work she has done to make next year's leaving certificate papers digitally accessible to people with vision impairments, people who are blind and people with other print disabilities, although the Minister of State might clarify if that is the case. We were an outlier from other European countries when it came to the examination papers being digitally accessible and every excuse under the sun was used, including the confidentiality and integrity of the paper, you name it. The bottom line is that technology has moved on. One has young people doing their education through their iPads and laptops, including the likes of myself and people who have similar conditions to me, who use the iPad and can scroll the print bigger with their fingers. If I had that in my day it would have been so beneficial to me but it was not available and that is life. Technology moves on and life moves on and as technology improves it is the great equaliser for people with such physical disabilities. Next year we will see many more people with print disabilities getting the opportunity to go to third level education, simply because they will be able to read their examination papers in the format and on the equipment they are used to using and are familiar with. That is a major achievement, driven by the Minister of State and which would not have happened but for the Minister of State. I have had one-to-one meetings with the Minister of State in her office on this issue and I have also had meetings with Féach, the organisation that represents parents of blind and visually impaired children in school. The Minister of State listened, acted and delivered and that is all we can expect of her. Well done to her.

The Minister of State is delivering for the school programme as well. It is not perfect by any means but it had to start somewhere and it has started somewhere. We are in a situation where nearly 50,000 children benefit from the summer programme, which is great news. I am also delighted that the Minister of State is reviewing it because the learnings from the programme, from people participating in it and from the teachers participating in it are what will make it even better. The learnings from other countries such as Malta are also positive because if the wheel is there we do not need to reinvent it; we just need to learn from it, make sure it is well-oiled and properly resourced and make sure that it rolls on. In summer programmes there should be more of a role for parents. Parents of children with special needs are more involved in their children's education than any other parent but there is a central role that a parent can play in the summer programme because by its nature it is supposed to be more relaxed and fun. We all know that if one is having fun one will learn and there could be a role for parents, or even older siblings. I do not know how that might be factored in but it is something that is worth exploring in the engagement and review to see the best international practice.

As always, it is important that it is pointed out that there are more resources put into special needs and special education in this country than in a lot of other countries. We have 15,000 or 16,000 SNAs whereas back in the 1990s there were no SNAs. I was probably among the first generations who had the opportunity to go to integrated education but had I been going to school in the 1970s I probably would have been going to the special school for the blind. The reality is that the support I had was the visiting teacher for the visually impaired twice a year. He was a nice man and he did a good job but the teachers in both of my schools acted as the SNAs and resource teachers because they took a personal interest, along with my community, neighbours and so on. That created the opportunity for me but in modern Ireland there has to be a better structure and because of that only a tiny proportion of special needs students are going to special schools now. I would like to think that some day we will be like Italy, where 99% of all students, including those with special needs and requirements, go to mainstream education.We are well on the way. What has been achieved in the past two years in special education in this country is phenomenal and history will look back on this period. In spite of Covid-19, a war in Europe, and challenges with the cost of living, the one thing that has got more resources year on year is special education. That is something that the Minister of State and this Government can be proud of.