2026-04-23

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a bheith anseo tráthnóna. I start by acknowledging the significant strides made in recent years, especially in the expansion of special classes for children with autism which has improved access to the appropriate supports for so many children. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy Naughton, are still working to continue to make sure that provision is rolled out across the country. However, concerns have been raised with me that this progress has not necessarily been reflected in the provision of dyslexia and speech and language needs. Associated with that are needs around dyspraxia and apraxia of speech as well, especially where there is a co-occurrence of autism. Access to specialist supports, such as reading classes, needed for these sorts of conditions remains quite limited in scope and availability. For example, there are no reading classes or specialist reading schools in my constituency of Dublin Mid-West. There are only a handful of these in Dublin and, indeed, in the country. Families in my constituency have reported to me that the early signs of dyslexia are not always recognised or acted upon in a timely way. There are many reasons for this. One is that there are capacity constraints in the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, which impact on access to psychological assessments. While diagnosis is not necessarily required for the continuum of support framework, we know that standardised test scores are used at school level to inform decisions on additional support. While these are valuable tools, they primarily measure attainment rather than the underlying learning difficulties and may only highlight the issues once a child has already begun to fall behind. International best practice suggests that early screening of key indicators, such as phonological awareness and letter sound knowledge, are the sorts of things that we should be zeroing in on. We see examples of this at play in some of our schools. Looking at the evidence for what needs to happen with regard to the identification of dyslexia and then the response to it, we need structured systematic literacy instruction or targeted small group or individual intervention delivered by trained staff, appropriate classroom accommodations and timely access to assistive technology. It is important at this point to thank all the teachers in schools who work with children who have dyslexia, dyspraxia or apraxia of speech. We need to make sure they have supports in place in their classroom and school settings, but also that they have access to the necessary training, especially with regard to structured literacy, and have the best-in-class, evidence-based teaching approaches to how they address this. As fathers, the Minister of State and I both know that without appropriate and timely intervention, dyslexia-related difficulties do not improve and children can experience reduced confidence, increased anxiety and ongoing academic challenges. My question is to ask, given the limited number of reading classes available around the country and the limited number of appropriate speech and language supports for children who have autism and may also have an underlying need with regard to dyslexia or some other speech and language issue, are there plans to consider expanding dyslexia-specific classes or to better incorporate specialist provision through the provision of reading classes in schools using the same model as the autism classes in schools? Where the continuing support, as we know, reduces reliance on diagnosis, are there plans to apply a national standard and to provide support for teachers in terms of more consistent early-screening approaches at primary level? Does the Department intend developing a national framework around guidance or standards for dyslexia intervention that is aligned with international best practice and the evidence I have set out? Another issue I have raised in this House, and I am sure the Minister of State, as a constituency TD, has also raised it, is the need for the expansion of NEPS provision across all schools to ensure timely diagnosis is made, as appropriate. I would appreciate the Minister of State's insight on that.

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this pertinent issue, which is one that resonates with many of us in the House in many regards. I am replying on behalf of the Minister. It is the policy of the Department of Education and Youth, in accordance with the principles of inclusive education, that students with additional learning needs are supported in mainstream classes, along with their peers, with additional supports provided as necessary. The Department has invested considerably in ensuring that all recognised mainstream schools have been allocated additional special education teaching resources to support children with special educational needs, including students with literacy difficulties. Guidelines for schools on the organisation, deployment and use of their special education teachers have been published on the Department's website. There are 15,000 special education teachers allocated to primary and post-primary schools to enable them to support children with special educational needs. I know that, as my wife is one. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has the responsibility for planning and co-ordinating school supports for children with special educational needs. The Department does not have a role in making individual school determinations. Funding is also made available to schools for the purchase of specialised equipment such as computers or software to assist children with special educational needs, including children with specific learning disability, where relevant professionals recommend the equipment as being essential for the provision of education. Schools apply to the NCSE through their local special educational needs organiser, SENO, for such support. A continuum of education provision is in place covering the full range of need spanning placement in mainstream classes, with supports through to more specialist placements either in a special class or a special school, depending on the complexity of need. It is important to note, though, that the majority of students with literacy difficulties currently receive additional teaching support from a special education teacher in a mainstream class. This is provided on the basis of the individual student's learning needs identified in schools, as opposed to being based on a requirement for a child to have a diagnosis or an assessment of a particular disability. There are four schools dedicated to supporting students with specific learning disability, SLD. There are also 14 SLD classes in 11 mainstream primary schools located across the country, in counties Dublin, Clare, Louth, Galway, Kerry and Wexford, although, I acknowledge, not in Dublin Mid-West. These settings have a student-teacher ratio of 9:1 and are attended by students normally aged between eight and 12 years for a maximum of two years. Students will have a diagnosis of dyslexia and score at the 2% percentile or lower on literacy standardised tests. They will also have an average or above average level of intelligence. In May 2021, the inspectorate was requested by the Department's special education section to evaluate provision in special classes for children and young people with an SLD. The purpose of the evaluations was to examine the quality of provision for children and young people with an SLD, with particular reference to understanding the placement of children and young people in these classes and to identifying the strengths and areas for improvement in learning and teaching in these classes. The inspectorate's report will inform the Department's development of policy and the overall effectiveness of SLD classes in the context of emerging international trends for inclusion. This is an area that the Minister is keeping under close review. The Minister is also working on a new measure which will see the provision of enhanced supports in mainstream schools for students experiencing literacy difficulties. The Minister hopes to be in a position to update the House on this soon. The Minister and the Department of education will continue to consider the findings and recommendations of the inspectorate report and may in time request the inspectorate to review provision for children with specific learning disabilities, SLDs, in special schools. I undertake to ask the Minister to engage directly with the Deputy given his interest in the area.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht an fhreagra sin. I appreciate the good faith of the response and thank the Minister of State for taking this on behalf of the Minister for education. One immediate point I will make, which I am sure the Minister of State's wife would empathise with, is that the application procedure for additional resources for SEN in a school is extremely onerous. Our focus should be on ensuring the resources and hours required are made available in a targeted and timely way, in the best interest of the child, especially where the school has demonstrated a need that can be met. I will delve into a few other things the Minister of State referred to in his answer and I would like him to take one or two other things to the Minister. The first is around the national framework and national guidance for an evidence-based approach to how we address dyslexia and associated speech and language difficulties in our schools. It is important it be evidence based. It is important teacher training be made available on a consistent basis. While I welcome that some specialist supports are provided in schools, there is also a need for an expansion of the reading classes the Minister of State mentioned in his reply. They do not necessarily need to be in a school setting, but the provision of more reading classes in schools is an important step in addressing the medium level of difficulty some children might have. Above all else, the reason I want to centre the importance of the national framework is that there are instances in my constituency where children in an autism special class are not able to access speech and language supports because it is not seen in the overall suite of supports provided to children in an autism class. While I am not for a second suggesting we should stop our roll-out of autism classes, I am concerned that we need to give the same level of attention to speech and language difficulties that in many cases coincide with a diagnosis of autism, but in many cases merit proper specialist supports that might be more than the SEN hours allocated to a school, that might require the opening of a reading class or, in some instances, the expansion of the reading school. Those disabilities are as important as the ones we are rightly responding to at the moment.

I appreciate the Deputy's supplementary question and, where relevant, will bring it forward to the relevant line Minister. He raised a few key issues that are absolutely understandable, but go to the nub of the complexity of providing special education that is sometimes blanket and misses certain aspects of a child's development in education or what their need or want is. It is hard to put that into a straight column. The Department will continue to engage intensively with the NCSE on forward planning for new special provision to ensure every child has a place in an educational setting, which, where possible, best fits their special needs on the back of the 15,000 special education teachers and 12,500 SNAs already in the system. For children with more complex needs, special class or special school places are still important. That is in keeping with the policy. Crucially, there is a need for a degree of flexibility to allow children to adapt to settings to allow them flourish to their best, particularly at the key ages of between eight and 12 when diagnoses are made. It is about putting in a learning support plan that is appropriate to the child's needs and the setting. There is no perfect answer to any of the issues, which on an individual basis I have no doubt are coming into the Deputy's constituency office, as they probably come into all our constituency offices. However, the issues the Deputy raised provide me with great material, which I will put directly to the Minister and I will ask her to respond to the Deputy with additional information in due course.