Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy for the question. We have discussed this issue and he has raised it a number of times with me. I have met a number of stakeholders to discuss how our schools support children with dyslexia, including experts in the field, teachers, parents and advocacy groups, such as the likes of Dyslexia Ireland and the Crack the Code group, which I met with Deputy Moynihan before the summer. As he knows, the majority of students with literacy difficulties currently receive additional teaching supports from a specialised education teacher in mainstream classrooms. The Department of Education and Youth has invested considerably in this space, with 15,200 special education teachers allocated to primary and post-primary schools to enable them to support children with additional needs, including students with literacy difficulties. Funding is also made available to schools for the purchase of specialised equipment such as computers or software to assist children where relevant professionals recommend the equipment as being essential for the provision of education. In addition, there are four schools dedicated to supporting students with specific learning disabilities, SLDs. There are also 14 SLD classes in 11 mainstream primary schools located across the country, in counties Dublin, Clare, Louth, Galway, Kerry and Wexford. As the Deputy knows, these settings have a student-teacher ratio of 1:9 and are attended by students normally aged between the ages of eight and 12 years for a maximum of two years. Students will also have a diagnosis of dyslexia and a score at the 2% percentile, or lower, on literacy standardised tests. They will also have an average or above average level of intelligence. In addition, the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, offers a national programme of support, which includes national webinars that have been consistently highly attended. All of these supports are important and do support children with dyslexia.
From what I am told by front-line staff, however, is that in some instances further supports are required. Specialised education teachers are an important part of the network of supports but, equally, will not be the solution in all cases. This is something of which I am very much aware and needs to be carefully considered by me as Minister of State with responsibility for special education. What I am clear on at this stage is how we support children with dyslexia and additional literacy needs is an area in which we need to see reform. We cannot continue with the status quo and there needs to be a change. I have discussed this issue with the inspectorate and will be engaging with it further, as well as with officials in my Department and, indeed, with several organisations and advocacy groups. We must all work collectively to ensure we have the best policy in place so that the outcomes for children are the best they can be.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24