Results 301-320 of 1,091,237 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Réada Cronin OR speaker:Simon Coveney OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Jackie Cahill OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Michael Creed OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:Helen McEntee) in 'Committee meetings'
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Is the capacity there?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Regarding the pilot in Munster around orientation and mobility, why has that not been expanded? How long has it been in place?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I am sure everybody else in the country is quite jealous of that. Why has that not been expanded? Does Ms Walsh have any insight into that? I know Féach is not the Department but I am just wondering.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Am I correct in saying that when we talk about orientation and mobility, particularly for VI students who are not in the community, there is a belief that that is about learning to use a cane and walk around the town, when in fact it is about independence, particularly in school life? Much of that is down to the social side of things. Ms Agbona spoke of being sent to have lunch somewhere...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Does Ms Agbona want to say something about that? She described something that is probably a fear of many parents - that their child would not have access to the social side of school or be empowered. Most parents want to wrap their kids in cotton wool and it is easy to retreat home. Maybe we are not supporting people to move out into the world and make links.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I suspect there is a huge cohort of visually impaired students who also have other challenges. They might have another diagnosis. They might, as Ms Agbona said, have a migrant parent who does not necessarily feel she will be heard if she goes to the school. There are all sorts of things because people's lives are complicated and complex. We should have a system that serves that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I reiterate that because it is extraordinary we might be looking to move that funding out of the Department of Education. If it currently is in the Department, that seems an unusual choice because we have heard from the previous speakers that it is about the experience of school and is absolutely about school life. Whether it is a legacy issue or not, we might need to look again at that. ...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I am sorry, but when Mr. Kenny is meeting the needs of one in four students, what he means is one in four students apply for recognition under reasonable accommodation. I am sure many of those students would say they are not reasonably accommodated.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I am just looking for a timeline. I have a very small amount of time. I am just looking for a timeline of the review.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Okay. I understand it is the SEC which has the main role here, but does the Department sit on the review body?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Has Mr. Kenny seen the terms of reference?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Will they be publishing them?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Does the Department expect to be a member of that group?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: The Department is not a stakeholder.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I am hugely frustrated by Mr. Kenny’s answer. The Department is not a stakeholder, and the SEC sits as an independent body within the Department. We talked at length in the previous session about the lack of joined-up thinking between the good work the Department is doing, such as introducing technology, trying to support students with mobility and trying to increase supports to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Okay, but it is still being taken to court by students for not receiving the correct supports.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Would Mr. Kenny recognise that there is a top-down departmental approach from the SEC where it is not upholding the UNCRPD and the person-centred approach that is now required and that is now actionable in the past few weeks under the optional protocol? I have formed the opinion that the Department is giving the SEC a free run on this. They are not engaging with individuals when an...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Mr. Kenny is talking about the number of students, which is fine and great, and hopefully we would accommodate them all. From my side of the desk, I am receiving many complaints – not hundreds. I often hear people saying they have no idea what reasonable accommodation they will be given, that nobody will sit down with them and that nobody will talk to them.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: There are students here today. Will Mr. Kenny undertake to take some of their details and forward them to the SEC for reasonable accommodation?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: -----I will turn to Mr. Doody. Who will sit on the outcomes working group?