Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also want to convey my deepest sympathies to the O'Rourke and Naughten families. Mary O'Rourke had a long and established career while John Naughten had so much more to give. It is an incredibly sad time.

I also raise national dyslexia week, which gives us an opportunity to shine a light on the barriers that still exist for dyslexic students in the classroom. One in ten students has dyslexia and may have difficulty with reading, spelling and writing as well as having longer cognitive processing times. That needs to be reflected in our education policy but I am sorry to say that the Department of Education seems to be closing down the policy of providing reading classes across the country. It is great to see how much investment is going into autism classes, and we need a lot more of them, but I do not understand the reluctance to open more reading classes, particularly in Dublin 15. What we are seeing this year is that children in the first and second percentile are not getting places in the existing classes and are having to travel long distances when they do. This is something the Minister needs to look at. She also needs to consider a policy of extending exam times for children with dyslexia which is the norm in other European countries. It is also the norm at third level and yet, at second level, it is not happening. What message are we sending out during national dyslexia week when an Oireachtas committee is saying that we should get rid of the Irish language exemption for children with dyslexia, without any engagement with the dyslexia community? Combined with those other two factors, that is not the message we should be sending out. I thank Dyslexia Ireland and Senator Lombard for all of their work in this area and request a debate on the matter.