Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Joanna Byrne (SF), Louth

The WALK peer model is the cornerstone of the Government's WALK peer ability programme for young people with special educational needs. The programme was developed as a supported transition model in 2013 with the aim of bridging the gap between leaving special school and successfully transitioning to further education, training or employment. This unique model has been supporting young people in my constituency of Louth for many years. It has faced down potential closure on more than one occasion and it manages on piecemeal annual funding. In spite of all these obstacles, it has thrived and grown. We have heard multiple Ministers and Governments tell this Chamber that inclusion will be at the heart of everything they do in breaking down barriers to ensure everyone is provided with opportunities to reach their potential. Clearly, this does not apply to young people in my constituency; it certainly does not extend to students in Drogheda, who are set to lose the vital WALK peer ability programme due to the Government cutting the funding this December.
Inara is a young autistic girl who is thriving in Ballymakenny College in Drogheda with the support of the WALK peer programme. Her parents told me that WALK peer brought her from darkness into light and that it is the reason she stopped crying going to school. She is in sixth year and they are now at their wits' end, having been told she may lose this support. They are very worried about what will happen when she leaves school without the programme's support. This cruel decision has far-reaching consequences for Inara and many other young people. The Government has decided young people in Louth and beyond will not have this vital support beyond December. It has decided to end this lifeline for young people with additional needs, with no commitment to even finishing out the academic year. The decision to end the WALK peer supported transitions programme in our schools is wrong, the failure to continue providing vital post-school careers and employment facilitator supports to these young people is wrong and the decision to essentially disregard the findings and recommendations of the PASTEL report is wrong. This programme is not merely an educational piece to be led by educators. As the Ministers well know, the WALK peer careers and employment facilitators play a vital and unique role. They co-ordinate and support the student, family, school, further education or training provider and prospective employers, while ensuring a person-centred pathway.
Who decided young people with disabilities or additional needs in school like Ballymakenny College do not deserve to know what will happen to their programme beyond December? What rationale was used to justify abandoning an evidence-led model that makes a meaningful difference to the lives of young people with additional needs who already face so many barriers? Will the Minister of State and the Government put their money where their mouth is in the upcoming budget and support the submission made by WALK to fund this vital support into the future? Will they give a commitment to parents and young people in Drogheda and beyond that the programme will be funded for this entire academic year and that young people like Inara will not be abandoned? Will they urgently engage with WALK to discuss the future of the WALK peer model in a meaningful way and explore how it can complement, integrate and guide the work Government does when it comes to the national transitions policy?
I am sickened to my stomach to even have to raise this here tonight. As cruel blows go, this latest stroke by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, targeting some of our most vulnerable young people, is the lowest of the low. To give a lifeline to somebody who desperately needs it and then snatch it back is just rotten to the core.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16