National Council for Special Education Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11 ============================================================ Darren O'Rourke (SF), Meath East This has been the experience for a couple of years now but I must say that I absolutely despair at the lack of basic information for Opposition TDs and the general public on this point. Earlier this week, another curveball or grenade - call it whatever you want - was thrown into the system and has caused major concern. That is the issue of what is now a recommendation. What does it mean for children and assessments of need this year and next? The Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, said yesterday that it was deeply disappointed. It said this was an act of bad faith and that the Departments of education and children and equality did not consult the INTO. It seems that the Department of children and its Minister are saying that in the future, the Department of education will reach an agreement. What exactly is the state of affairs there? Teachers and principals contact us regularly. They are deeply concerned that they will have an additional responsibility that many feel they are not qualified to deliver. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-11