Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State. I am asking the Minister for Education to intervene to ensure that the comprehensive review of the reasonable accommodations at certificate examinations, RACE, scheme will be completed by the State Examinations Commission prior to the 2025 examinations.

As the Minister of State will probably be aware, this is World Dyslexia Awareness Day. Ten per cent of the population is dyslexic. Thirteen thousand students in our education system are dyslexic. What we are looking for today is clear, namely the granting of additional time for people with dyslexia who are sitting State examinations. We are not looking to reinvent the wheel. This accommodation applies across Europe. Ireland is an outlier in the European context.

When people go to third level, they have the option of additional time being provided when sitting exams. For some bizarre reason, however, the State Examinations Commission has not granted additional time to people. That is a sin. It does not make sense. We are hanging 13,000 children out to dry because we cannot get our act together here.

I raised this matter with representatives from the commission at a meeting of the relevant joint committee. I was informed that it would take two to three years to complete the review. That means children sitting the junior certificate this year will not have any chance of having additional time provided when they sit the leaving certificate. It is unacceptable that I was given this response at a committee of these Houses. That cannot, should not and will not work.

The students in question need to be given a chance. We want them to reach their full potential. We do not want them to be stressed. We do not want barriers put in front of them. What is being said is that the review of the system to provide people with the additional time they require may take two or three years to complete.

What really annoys me is that when people get to third level, they gets these accommodations. I have spoken to many students who have used the reports that they got in primary school to get the additional time.It does not cost extra money. What they do is place a sticker on the table and the student gets additional time off the back of that. There are no financial implications. The most insulting line that we came across from the State Examinations Commission is it does not want to give dyslexic kids an unfair advantage. Could you imagine that is what the commission came up with? It is just not good enough. We are failing students.

Today is World Dyslexia Awareness Day. There will be a meeting in Buswells Hotel shortly at which I will speak. I have spoken about this for years and I will keep speaking until dyslexic pupils get what they deserve, namely, equal opportunity, which is being denied by a State board. I am looking for the Minister to intervene, not to give me another excuse. I want her to intervene and ensure the Department she is in charge of delivers. If not, another cohort of children will go through stress and pain and will not reach their full potential because we cannot deliver what we should be delivering. No more excuses.

A petition is being circulated to every public representative in the country asking them to support additional time being granted. I have signed it, as have many of my colleagues. I ask every Member of the Oireachtas and every councillor to sign it. Unless we get this change, we will continue to fail 13,000 students and the youth of Ireland. That makes no logical sense.

If anybody tells me that we are giving dyslexic kids an unfair advantage, I will go mad. That is the line we got from the State Examinations Commission. The time has come for change. We need to have movement on this issue. I am disappointed that on World Dyslexia Awareness Day the senior Minister is not in attendance. I have great respect for the Minister of State but this is an issue that deserves the attention of the Minister. It is as big an issue as there will ever be.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this extremely important issue.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Lombard for raising this important matter. I have listened to him many times raise it previously and I know how passionate he is about it. I am sure that many of the 13,000 students want to see the same change sought by the Senator. It is time for action.

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education, Deputy Norma Foley, and the Department of Education. I assure the Senator that the State Examinations Commission takes very seriously its obligations in providing access to the certificate examinations for students with special education needs. The SEC is fully committed to providing an examination and assessment system with the highest possible standards of inclusiveness, equity and fairness which enables all candidates to display their achievements.

The State Examinations Commission works closely with school authorities, the Department of Education and other agencies to provide access to examinations for candidates with special educational needs. It also actively engages with persons with disabilities through their representative organisations. The State Examinations Commission has a duty to make the service equally available to as many people as possible. I am informed that almost one in four candidates at the 2024 certificate examinations was provided with some form of reasonable accommodations within the RACE scheme to support them in accessing the leaving certificate, leaving certificate applied and the junior cycle examinations

From the 2016-17 school year, the RACE scheme has undergone fundamental reform. The reform focused on ensuring greater integration of the RACE scheme with overall Department of Education special educational needs policy, enabling greater access to the scheme by students with learning difficulties and allowing greater autonomy to schools and certainty to students about the examination supports which will be available to them.

The candidate-centred changes were informed by engagement with stakeholders and included representatives of students, including those with special educational needs such as the Dyslexia Association of Ireland, the Special Needs Parents Association, school management and leadership bodies, Government agencies and statutory bodies, including the National Council for Special Education and the National Disability Authority, the Department of Education and the National Educational Psychological Service.

Since this reform, the RACE scheme has been subject to a process of ongoing review and improvement by the SEC.The commission's recent enactment of the scheme includes the introduction of further examinations for leaving certificate candidates who missed their examinations in the main sitting due to close family bereavement, or serious accident, illness or injury. In the context of the senior cycle reform, which the Senator discussed, the SEC has commenced work on a comprehensive system-wide review of the RACE scheme. The focus of the review will be increasing the use of assistive technology to enhance access and integration, and to further support independent learning. The terms of reference for the review have recently been agreed by the SEC board of commissioners. The review will consider all relevant issues and take into account the best practice internationally. The composition of the structures that will underpin the review is being finalised. This will include extensive consultation and engagement with as broad a range of stakeholders as possible, including young people with special education needs, their families and representative organisations.

Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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When we had the commission members before the committee, they informed us it would take two or three years. We are still in that timeline. It is outrageous that we do not have a timeline here. We will have a situation where kids will be doing their junior certificate and they will not have the accommodations required to reach their full potential. Children will get assistive technology to help them along that road but it is the case that if a person has a C-Pen that reads the stuff, it takes longer to do than physically reading it. This is not reinventing the wheel. In France, for example, a dyslexic student gets 33% extra time. This is what happens in other countries. Parents and the community are frustrated because we are not being listened to. We are stuck in a process and that process is taking too long. The commission needs to review it. A report was produced in 2008 saying that additional time should be allocated for dyslexic kids, yet we are only now doing a review. It really is just not good enough. The Minister needs take control of this because if not, we are failing our young people and we are putting them under more pressure and strain. Society and life is tough enough without having this bureaucracy affecting them. My frustrations are just beyond belief because there is no movement here. The SEC board seems to run on a different planet to the rest of the world. They could be consultation after consultation but they are not going to make the decision we need them to make. They are letting our people down. I am frustrated here. I totally appreciate that it is not the Minister of State's brief but the senior Minister needs to take control, otherwise we are letting down a cohort of people in our society that needs our help and support, and the bureaucracy is just killing us.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator. Before I bring in the Minister of State, I welcome to the Public Gallery my assistant and intern Cat Yost, her aunt Lynn Yost, her cousin Thomas Farmer, and transition year student Damien Moyles who is also working in my office.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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In once sense Senator Lombard's frustration is justified. I will absolutely relay his sense of disappointment regarding the timeline. We need an accelerated delivery programme on this reform. That is really important in the context of what he has advocated on behalf the young people who have special education needs and who in the future will sit their State examinations and need that additional level of support. The review needs to be expedited and we need to have a clear pathway for how this reform will be undertaken. This is not to take away from the need for extensive consultation and extensive review across a broad range of stakeholders. We need to get to the end point as quickly as possible and I understand where the Senator is coming from on behalf of those he advocates for. I will relay that message back to the Minister for Education.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I concur with the Minister of State and commend our friend and colleague, Senator Lombard, on what I know have been years of campaigning on this issue, and specifically on this particular aspect, which is extremely unfair.Hopefully, the review will be expedited, as the Minister of State has said. Before concluding I thank him for his time this afternoon. We know how busy he is. His time in the Seanad is always appreciated.