Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 19 Jun 2024

I am going to get right to the heart of matters this morning and talk about core funding and staffing issues for childcare providers. This is based on engaging with a range of childcare providers of various types in Dublin West. All of them speak to overburdensome paperwork and financial reporting; accounting requirements that go far beyond their capacity and capability when everything is already transparent and submitted to Revenue; and administration that is getting in the way of relationships with parents and the real work of delivering quality care and education. The scale of non-contact time and the lack of funding for non-contact time is putting serious pressure on providers.

I have been speaking to a couple of providers. A smaller pre-school told me that they stay up to midnight every night filling up paperwork themselves, for maybe two to three hours every day. A larger provider said their centre manager spent three full days a week administering the schemes.

Moving on to staff retention and recruitment, childcare workers do not feel valued. They are leaving or they are not attracted to the sector. The reality is they are not being paid enough for the work they do. I appreciate the rise in the ERO but sadly, it is not enough to compete with other careers. Providers in Dublin West are already paying those levels anyway. Level 8 graduates are leaving the sector to work as primary school teachers or in therapies. Other levels are attracted to becoming SNAs with better hours, conditions and holidays. We are losing really good people who want to work in early years and the result is providers are closing down rooms. Tigers Childcare has informed parents of their struggles with staff, and services are closing. Chatterbox in Rockabee Park, for instance, announced last week that it is closing because of staff shortages.

Early learning graduates should be treated equitably with school teachers at this stage. We need to keep and value the people who have years of experience in childcare but do not have degrees. We need to offer more training and support more opportunities. There is a very strong argument for core funding covering staff costs. If early learning and childcare is an essential public service, we have to start treating it as such.

Core funding is working for some but for others it really is not. I fear that the Government underestimates how precarious the situation is. How many providers are on the verge of pulling out of core funding? The 15% increase in core funding does not translate into 15% for services. I am told the overall uplift for services is about 2.5%, and the Government is right to freeze fees at 2019 levels for parents. I really believe that. However, if we are going to do that we have to take into consideration the increased operating costs over the last five years. They cannot expect services to absorb those losses when they know it is not a high-profit sector for most.

Core funding increases are not enough to cover the additional cost of recruitment, retention and administration. There is not enough funding for baby rooms. Where does quality come into all of this? There are flaws that need to be rectified. The fact that new services can set their fees but existing services cannot increase theirs is creating problems and tension. I very much believe in core funding. As a model, it works but it has to adapt. It needs further investment, funding and partnership. Right now, there is too much rigidity and there is not enough trust. We need short- and long-term solutions to staffing. This really is a ticking timebomb. All the signs are there for us to read - room closures, service closures, and ECCE operators struggling to survive. Every service and every place matters.

I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for children. I thank Senator Currie for raising this important issue and for offering me the opportunity to respond. Ensuring access to high-quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority for the Government. Various data sources provide evidence that the supply of early learning and childcare is increasing in terms of the number of services opening and the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering.

Sector profile data shows an 8% increase in enrolments nationally between 2022 and 2023, with increases in enrolments in the Dublin area ranging from 5% in Fingal to 14% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown for the same period. Data from core funding shows an increase of 3% in the number of hours of provision being delivered between September 2022 and September 2023, with capacity increases of approximately 6% to be funded through core funding from this coming September. Tusla registration data from 2023 shows the largest increase in early learning and childcare services in a number of years. There has been a smaller number of closures and a net increase of 129 in the overall number of services nationally. A growth trend has been observed in the first five months of 2024. Specifically, the data from Tusla on the numbers of closures and new services opening from the end of May 2024 shows that so far in 2024 there has been a net increase of seven early learning services such as crèches and preschools and 24 stand-alone school-age childcare services across the country. According to this Tusla data, over the period January to May 2024 four early learning and care services opened in Dublin and three closed, while five stand-alone school-age childcare services opened in Dublin and none closed.

The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, acknowledges that some parents continue to have difficulty in finding places for their children, in part due to the progress that has been achieved in respect of affordability with the introduction of the fee freeze through core funding and the expansion of the national childcare scheme. To this end, his Department is progressing a range of actions to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare is aligned with demand, with work in this area led by the new supply management unit he established earlier this year. In addition to the significant growth in capacity that has been funded through the core funding scheme, core funding has improved the stability and sustainability of funding to providers. The funding available through core funding has increased each year since the scheme was first introduced and will reach €331 million for year three of the scheme, with every provider in contract for the scheme expected to benefit from significant increases in funding from September 2024.

As well as core funding, special supports are available from the Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about its viability. This support, accessed through local city and county childcare committees, can take the form of assisting services with interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flows, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances. I encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty that would like to avail of support to contact its city and county childcare committees to access case management supports. Contact details can be found at www.myccc.ie. What the Minister is saying is that there has been an increase in overall services and we have put in a substantial amount of money and that will continue to increase.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. As I said, however, core funding is working for some but not for all. It is like a tale of two experiences and I fear we are not listening to the people who are having difficulty. My experience is that this issue is not affecting new services. There is not enough supply in the sector and we need to protect the services that are operating now and keep them in the sector. I completely accept that core funding works, but I think we are at a pinch point. In the next few weeks and months we are going to see an increase in people talking about pulling out of core funding or actually doing so. I spoke to one service today who said core funding covers 15% of its business and it is just not sustainable. I accept these figures but there is a bigger picture here and I ask that the Minister speak to operators like Cherry Blossom montessori in Castleknock. He knows the issues there. Like I said, every place counts.

I thank the Senator and I fully agree with her. As we now have full employment, there is competition when it comes to retaining staff. As I stated, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has recently established a new supply management unit in his Department to undertake more detailed analysis of supply and demand. That is an extremely important development. His role is to develop a planning function for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of the supply and demand for early learning and childcare in a nuanced and specific way at local area level. The work of this unit is akin to a forward planning unit in the Department of Education and, as the Senator knows, that unit has been very successful in the Department. The unit will also oversee the administration of capital investment under the national development plan through the building blocks capacity grant. The primary focus of the building blocks capacity grant scheme is to increase capacity in the one- to three-year-old pre-early childhood care and education age range for full-day or part-time care.

The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, intends to announce details of the latest strand of the scheme in the coming weeks. Under this strand, grants ranging from €100,000 to €600,000 will be made available to early learning and childcare providers to physically extend their services to deliver additional capacity, with a focus on places for children aged under three. The relative demand model has been developed by the Department using the latest census data information. There is a lot of work being done by the Department to expand the services and this new scheme of between €100,000 and €600,000 or €650,000 in grants is a welcome development.

It is good to see the Minister of State. I know that he, like me, recognises the tremendous contribution the Educate Together movement has made to the education system in this country. As a school patron, Educate Together operates a national network of 118 schools in Ireland, with 97 primary and 21 second-level schools catering to over 40,000 students. Educate Together schools provide a unique, inclusive and equality-based school ethos, as set out in its charter. The charter describes schools that guarantee equality of access and esteem to children, irrespective of their social, cultural or religious background, are learner-centred in their approach to education and are run as participatory democracies with respectful partnership between parents, pupils and staff. Also enshrined in the charter is an obligation to put students at the centre of everything the schools do. All children have equal access to school, and no one religion or world view is given priority over another in Educate Together schools.

I was shocked to discover that when allocating places for school transport, neither the Department nor Bus Éireann recognised the distinctive ethos of Educate Together. Last month, parents in Castleconnell received a letter from Bus Éireann which sets out the basic approach in terms of eligibility for school transport. It states that under the terms of the Department of Education post-primary school transport scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by the Department and Bus Éireann having regard to ethos and language. So far, so good. However, the letter goes on to exclude the secondary school student in question, stating incorrectly that the Educate Together school in Limerick is not his nearest, having regard to ethos and language, and declaring that Newport College post-primary school is nearer.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Newport school is not an Educate Together school. It is not even in the same county. This is clear evidence that neither the Department nor Bus Éireann recognise that Educate Together has a distinct ethos when it comes to school transport. Last month, my comrade Deputy Quinlivan received a response to a parliamentary question from the Department which stated, "With regard to ethos, the Department of Education classifies schools as being one of the following - of religious denomination, interdenominational or multi-denominational." The response goes on to state, "The scheme has regard to ethos and language in that exceptions to eligibility for the scheme are considered in the case of minority religions and the Irish language." In 2024 this definition of exceptions is outdated, extraordinarily narrow and, frankly, embarrassing. It is a 19th century policy for a 21st century society. For the record, the parents of the child in this case drove their son to the other side of town for two years in order to bring him to an ET primary school because they very much are invested in the Educate Together ethos.

The result in this particular case is that approximately 20 children, who had access to a bus when the Educate Together school was housed in temporary premises, have since been denied school transport since the permanent school building was opened last September. We have the grossly unfair situation of two children living next door to each other and one of them having access to a bus to Castletroy College while the other who attends Educate Together, also in Castletroy, has no school bus. The attitudes of the Department and Bus Éireann in respect of school ethos can best be summed up as Catholic, Church of Ireland and then the rest of you. It is not good enough and I ask the Minister of State to intervene and give the distinctive ethos of Educate Together the recognition it deserves. Just because it does not involve religion does not mean it does not deserve recognition. I have not even dealt with the environmental details or that it makes no sense to force parents to bring their children to school in their cars, rather than provide a school bus. Hopefully the Minister of State will get the gist of what I mean. My question is simple. As the Department of Education is in complete denial of the ethos of Educate Together when it comes to school transport, what is the Minister of State going to do about it?

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I should outline that I am here on behalf of the Minister for Education. The Department of Education does not come under my remit but I have a very detailed statement, which runs to ten pages. I do not think I will have time to deliver all of it. Before addressing the specific matter raised, I will provide an outline of the extent of the school transport scheme. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, more than 161,600 children, including more 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post-primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from the Ukraine, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The total cost of the scheme in 2023 was €382 million.

Under the current terms of the school transport scheme, children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 km from their nearest national school and are attending that school, having regard for ethos and language. At post-primary level, they are eligible for the scheme where they reside not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest post-primary educational centre, as determined by the Department and Bus Éireann, having regard to the ethos and the language. Children who are eligible for school transport and who complete the application process on time, that is, apply and pay on time, are accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

Children who are eligible for school transport but for whom no services are available may be offered the remote area grant towards the cost of making private transport arrangements. The remote area grant is also payable for eligible children who may have to travel 3.2 km or more to or from a designated pick-up and set-down point. Temporary alleviation measures, TAMs, at post-primary level, which have been in place since 2019, are being continued for the 2024-25 school year. Under these measures, transport is provided where there is a route in operation and where capacity exists for concessionary post-primary schools, for those who are eligible for transport to their nearest school, who are attending their second year of school and who applied and paid on time. Children who are not eligible for school transport may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only and will be facilitated where spare seats are available after eligible children have been accommodated. Where the number of ineligible children exceeds the number of spare seats available, Bus Éireann will allocate tickets for the spare seats using an agreed selection process.

It should be noted that planning for school transport services in any given year will commence in the December to January period preceding the start of that school year. In this regard, planning for the 2024-25 school year is well under way and Department officials regularly engage with Bus Éireann. A review of the school transport scheme has been completed and the School Transport 2030 report has been published. This report was conducted with a view to examining the current scheme, its broader effectiveness and sustainability and to ensure it services students and their families adequately. It marks the largest review of the school transport scheme since it was established back in 1967. The Government is committed to working to achieve the report’s recommendations of expanding access to the scheme in order that an additional 100,000 pupils can be carried by 2030.

While I appreciate the Minister of State standing in today, I am very disappointed with what the statement he has been handed delivers, because it has not addressed the key issue. I have established the key issue is, without doubt, that the school ethos of Educate Together is not recognised by the Department or Bus Éireann when it comes to providing school transport places. That is the fundamental point I came here to deliver this morning and in fairness to the Minister of State, the people who handed him that statement decided not to address that issue at all. I ask the Minister of State to address that. I have great respect for him, I worked with him here in the Seanad before he became a Minister of State. There is something fundamentally wrong with the current status. School transport should recognise the distinctive ethos of and include children who go to Educate Together schools. That is clearly not the case at the moment. To be clear, the transport review is welcome but will be of no comfort to the current children. It will be years before we get those school transport places. There is a fundamental issue of fairness and equality here. We recognise the ethos of Educate Together as a distinct ethos yet neither the Department the Minister of State is representing here today nor Bus Éireann do and that is not good enough.

I will certainly take on board what the Senator has set out. As I said, a review has been published that sets out clearly the reform that is going to be implemented and the target of 100,000 additional students benefiting between now and 2030. In other words, the current capacity allows for over 161,000 children to travel on school transport. We are talking about adding another 100,000 on to that so it is being developed and it will be reviewed year on year between now and 2030. As for the particular issue the Senator has raised, it is obviously an issue about which I will go back to the Department. I have noted the Senator's concerns and it is important that the maximum number of people can benefit from the transport made available and that is what the Department has been trying to ensure.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth. I am not sure whether this is under his Department's remit but I thank him for coming in on behalf of the Minister for housing. My Commencement matter is very simple. It concerns the need for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to make a statement on the supports available to assist people living in older houses of high heritage value to help them to improve their building energy rating, using traditional or more modern building methods, whichever is necessary. Currently, out of the 1.5 million houses owned by people in Ireland, 23.8% of them were built before 1961. A further 20.8% were built before 1980 and another 10% before 1990. More than half of the houses are older houses with bad BER ratings. I have to commend the Government as the retrofit programme in general has been fantastic. We are retrofitting 1,000 homes a week and putting solar panels on 100 homes a day, which is really good. At the same time there is an older, more vulnerable community of people who are unable to avail of this because when a lot of the companies listed under the SEAI as one-stop-shops visit these older dwellings, where people have applied and have waited a long time, they are saying they cannot do anything for them. These are all older people.

That is not right or fair. They are usually older, have less money and live in the coldest houses. I know we cannot get everything right overnight but it is time to hear from the Minister of State as to what is being done to help the more vulnerable people. I know many of them personally and have visited many of the houses. It is not fair for any company to be allowed to come down to the house and say it cannot do anything for the person. When I did up an old house, we thatched the roof, which made it highly insulated and we used hemp plaster on the inside of the house to insulate it as well. Things can be done. I did that 25 years ago. How that is not in place now beggars belief. We need to help with the older housing stock, help older people and give them the same funding and supports other people get so that we can hold onto these lovely old houses, people can remain in their old houses and live healthy lives instead of relying on a huge amount of fossil fuels to heat their homes because we have yet to figure out how to support these people using methods tried and tested for many years. The solutions are available. There is cob, hemp and dry stone walling - all of these things can be used. There are plenty of good people; there are great stonemasons and hemp plasterers. I grew hemp 30 years ago and used it to plaster our house. We do not need to pilot this. I do not want to hear about pilot schemes. I want to hear about what is being done about older people in older houses and how we can help them. I welcome the derelict housing grant, which is phenomenal, but I want to know what is being done to help bring the BER up, so that companies are not going down to old people who at last think they are going to get help and are told they cannot do anything for them.

I thank Senator Garvey for raising this issue. Older homes, built until around the 1940s, usually fall into the category of being traditionally built. These homes were generally built with solid walls, often with a lime or earthen based render finish and include stone-built dwellings. The main difference between traditional and modern construction is the way moisture is managed. Traditional materials and construction techniques allow for the natural transfer of heat and moisture. Solid masonry walls rely on their thickness to cope with atmospheric moisture. This means that standard retrofit solutions are often not suitable for use with traditional buildings as they can lead to adverse and unintended consequences for the building fabric and the health or well-being of its occupants. Energy efficiency upgrades appropriate to such materials and methods are needed in these cases. For instance, a stone or brick wall with lime-based mortar will need a lime-based plaster render to remain vapour permeable.

The SEAI advises that it does not exclude pre-1940 homes from applying to any of its grant-supported schemes. However, all SEAl approaches are determined by building regulations, incorporating National Standards Authority of Ireland SR 54:2014 code of practice for the energy efficient retrofit of dwellings. This means that wall insulation is not recommended under any of its residential energy efficiency schemes on dwellings built before 1940 constructed in stone, single-leaf masonry or composite wall construction. That said, the SEAI will assess applicant homes under the various residential energy efficiency schemes for suitable measures other than wall insulation.

To support and promote our built heritage and to discharge certain statutory responsibilities, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage operates the national built heritage service, NBHS. The NBHS works with owners, building professionals, local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that our built heritage is valued, protected and carefully adapted, where necessary, so that its character and special interest can be enjoyed by future generations. In respect of improving the BER of historic homes, the NBHS’s role is primarily advisory. Last year, the NBHS published technical guidance for specifiers and installers, entitled, "Improving energy efficiency in traditional buildings". This guidance was developed in close collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Office of Public Works, the Heritage Council and the SEAI. This document provides detailed and comprehensive guidance on the proper methods for improving the energy efficiency of solid masonry wall buildings. This covers the vast majority of buildings constructed before 1919 and includes the category of older buildings of high heritage value, referred to by Senator Garvey. The NBHS continues to work with the relevant professional bodies to disseminate the guidance.

In addition to SEAI schemes funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the built heritage investment scheme, funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and administered through the local authorities, can be used to fund energy efficiency improvements in protected structures and buildings such as those in architectural conservation areas, provided that those improvements accord with good conservation practice. The specific measures that can be funded include draught-proofing of openings, attic insulation, repair and upgrading of historic shutters, installation of secondary glazing and insulation of suspended timber floors. The scheme has a budget of €4.5 million for 2024.

Looking forward, SEAI and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications are examining options to pilot supports for traditional buildings through the existing one-stop-shop service. This will be progressed in the coming months.

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome students from Saint Columba's primary school in Glasnevin who are here this morning. You are very welcome to Leinster House. I know it is the second-last or third-last week of school but the Cathaoirleach has a particular power to give homework off. In the event of you not getting homework, I am sorry you will not get homework off, but in the event of you getting homework, I offer you homework off for the rest of the week. I am sure you are getting homework off anyway for the last two or three weeks of term. I thank the students for being here. I hope they have a very enjoyable visit to Leinster House. I thank the teachers and all the staff for the work they are doing with the students.

The bottom line is older people are living in older houses in the cold and spending a lot of money on heating their homes. Currently, the SEAI scheme looks like it suits everybody, but when older people living in older houses applied, the builders listed on that website - the only ones people can contact - came down and said they could do anything. While the Minister of State said, "The specific measures that can be funded include draught-proofing of openings, attic insulation, repair and upgrading of historic shutters, installation of secondary glazing and insulation of suspended timber floors", none of the companies offer those services. Something is wrong. Either the list of people willing to do the work needs to be broadened out or the companies saying "No" to people need to be told that is not acceptable. At the moment, I am aware of lots of people who were told there is no help for them. I do not know what to say to those people because this contradicts it. I do not know what, "In the coming months" means. The Minister of State said, "Looking forward, the SEAI and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications are examining options to pilot supports ...". We do not need to pilot supports. I have done up an old cottage and so have many others for many years. I can take the Minister of State to my house from 30 years ago. We do not need pilot programmes. The money needs to get to the people in these cold, old houses.

I thank the young people from the school in Glasnevin. Senator Garvey raised the case with such passion. She is a passionate and eloquent advocate for rural Ireland, as everybody saw on television last night. The case she is making is that people in very old houses, particularly stone dwellings, are often the people who need energy upgrades the most. They live in remote areas, are on low incomes or are older people, and they need their homes to be made warm. A primary function of any government is to keep old people warm in the winter. That is a basic thing. The Senator is absolutely right that we need to tackle this. The answer given is that the SEAI does not exclude their houses from grants. It does not do wall insulation but has a range of other supports. Those people should not be excluded. What the Senator said is that there is a disconnect between that advice and what is actually happening on the ground in County Clare, where contractors are saying there is nothing they can do for those people. I suggest that the Senator refer to my office one of those cases where the contractor said there was nothing they could do. I will go back to the SEAI and we will work through one of them to see what actually happens in practice. We have new guidelines for how to upgrade stone buildings and traditional housing. They are supposed to work in practice. If we can go through an actual example and see what is happening, perhaps we can learn from that.

I welcome my colleague from County Cork, Deputy Burke, and thank him for taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Education. Will the Minister for Education make a statement on the ongoing review regarding reasonable accommodations being available to leaving certificate and junior certificate examination students? This has been a significant issue for many people and I have been chasing it for a long time. There is a significant petition of 30,000 people from the Dyslexia Association of Ireland, which is looking for a review of accommodations available to people doing the leaving certificate and junior certificate examinations. These are very basic accommodations available in other countries and at third level but for some reason, the State Examinations Commission has not implemented them in the leaving certificate or junior certificate examinations. One I always speak about is additional time. I cannot understand why additional time is not given to dyslexic kids. It happens in every other jurisdiction, as far as I can see, in Europe. It happens at third level and in universities, where students get additional time.

For some reason we are stuck in a scenario where the State Examinations Commission does not allow for dyslexic children who are doing the junior and leaving certificate examinations. We brought this matter to the petitions committee last May and we got an absolutely frightening response from the State Examinations Commission that it would look at this and that the review would take two to three years. What does that mean? There are kids in primary school who would probably go through the leaving certificate process and this will not be implemented. It just does not work.

We will also need to start looking at other things regarding this review such as the bizarre situation where the Department of Education will give assistive technology grants to children and they may get these in perhaps first or second year but the State Examinations Commission will not approve that technology to be used until some time during their third year. Can one imagine this now? We are giving a dyslexic child a computer to help him or her to go through their school years and the State Examinations Commission will not give them the approval until some time in third year. They then sit in limbo for two years with this issue. It is beyond belief.

We have issues here which need to be dealt with in a timeline that is appropriate. The timeline we are receiving from the State Examinations Commission is two to three years for the review to happen. For me, this review needs to happen in two to three months. We have 13,000 children who have gone through the leaving certificate process in the past few days who are dyslexic and they need those accommodations to be brought forward and to be made available to them such as they would receive when they go to third level education or receive in other European countries. We are behind the times when it comes to this issue and there is no urgency on the part of the State Examinations Commission to prioritise it. It must be prioritised and moved forward and the children who are going through this leaving certificate cycle are struggling because of the lack of time they are being given for the exams. I do not understand how the State Examinations Commission is taking a two or three-year process to come back with what it proposes to do.

I will finish on the following point. In a report published in 2008, it was then recommended that additional time should be granted and that this be brought forward but the commission has not even brought that recommendation forward itself. We do not need any more reviews. We need this to happen and we need the State Examinations Commission to look at this issue in a timely manner. To do this in two or three years is not a timely manner.

I will break with protocol now, even though I should not comment as Cathaoirleach, but as a former teacher and as someone who has family members involved in exams, I wish to concur with Senator Lombard. I know that the Minister of State is not the line Minister but this is an inordinate delay and it is having a negative impact on many students. I should not pre-empt the Minister of State's reply but I want to support Senator Lombard.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. With all of us Members present from Cork, I wonder if we could have a Seanad sitting in Cork.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am here on behalf of the Minister for Education so the reply received is from the Department of Education. I thank the Senator for the opportunity to update the House on this matter.

The State Examinations Commission, SEC, has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the State examinations. The SEC is fully committed to providing an examination and assessment system with the highest possible standards of inclusiveness, equity and fairness and which enables all candidates to display their achievements. The SEC 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.

For the 2016 to 2017 school year, the reasonable accommodations at the certificate examinations, RACE, scheme underwent fundamental reform. The reform focused on ensuring greater alignment of the RACE scheme with the overall policies of the Department of Education in the area of special educational needs; 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. These candidate-centred changes were informed by engagement with stakeholders which 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. The RACE scheme continues to be subject to a process of ongoing review and improvement by the SEC. For example, recent enhancements to the scheme include the introduction of deferred examinations for leaving certificate candidates who miss their examinations in the main sitting due to close family bereavement, or serious accident, illness or injury.

For the 2023 leaving certificate examinations, the SEC piloted the provision of read-only digital versions of examination papers to 14 leaving certificate candidates who are vision impaired and under the care of the National Council for Special Education’s visiting teachers service. Following a Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, case about inclusion of junior cycle candidates in the pilot, and having given detailed consideration to the issue, the SEC decided to extend the scope of the pilot to junior cycle in 2024. The scope was also extended to include modified as well as standard versions of examination papers. A total of 26 leaving certificate and junior cycle candidates are included in the pilot arrangements this year.

In the context of senior cycle redevelopment, the SEC has commenced work on a comprehensive system-wide review of the RACE scheme. A focus of the review will be increasing the use of assistive technology to enhance access and integrity and to further support independent learning. Some areas of recent focus by commentators and stakeholders on RACE include the provision of supports for candidates who have processing or cognitive issues including those with autistic spectrum disorders; the range of supports appropriate to those who are vision or hearing impaired; and the adequacy of additional time within the scheme. A review is ongoing and the Department is looking at it.

The reason I tabled this matter is because of a statement made on Thursday, 16 May in a committee hearing here. The lady in charge of the commission said it would take two or three years for the review to take place. My issue here is the two to three years. We are looking at trying to get additional time for the students, which time is already in place in third level institutions. It is the same thing that has happened for the leaving certificate and junior certificate and that happens also across the entirety of European countries.

We also need to look at the issue of where children are given a grant from the Department to get assistive technology but the commission will only allow that to be used some time during third year in State examinations. Families are left in limbo for a two and a half year process. The lack of joined-up thinking absolutely baffles me here. We have children who are using assistive technology in first year and second year but the State Examination Commission will not give them the approval to use it until some stage in third year, if at all. I think urgency is required here.

In the Department's response, and it is not the problem of the Minister of State present here, the timeline of two to three years was not given. In the committee, the timeline of two to three years was given. I would consider that to be very disingenuous, to say the very least.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Senator. The SEC at this time is finalising the terms of reference and the composition of the structures that will underpin the review. The review will consider all relevant issues and will take account of the best practice internationally. This, therefore, is a comprehensive review. In this regard, I am assured that the SEC intends that there will be extensive consultation and engagement with as broad a range of stakeholders as possible, including young people with special educational needs, their families and representative organisations. The review will take place. The SEC is finalising the terms of reference together with its composition and that is all being completed at the present time. Progress is being made.

I accept what the Senator is saying about the two to three year timescale but, in fairness, it is important that there is that consultation so that we can take on board all of the views of people who are directly involved in this area, both the young people with special educational needs but also their representative organisations.