Rose Conway-Walsh demands dedicated teaching hours for L2LP/L1LP
Rose Conway-Walsh raised concerns about allocation of teaching hours for students on L2LP and L1LP programmes, arguing current hours are being taken from general SET allocations and are insufficient. She called for dedicated allocations similar to the LCA programme because these pupils are low in numbers but high in need.
Main demand
Rose Conway-Walsh urged the Department of Education to allocate specific hours to schools to resource the teaching of L2LP and L1LP students rather than drawing those hours from the general Special Education Teacher (SET) pool.
Illustrative pupil examples
She cited a pupil receiving eight hours a week of one-to-one teaching focused on phonics and Dolch words and another pupil receiving two hours weekly of maths tuition covering basic units such as money, days, weeks and months. These examples were used to question whether such pupils should rely on general SET hours or receive separate allocations.
Concerns about SET and SEN allocation
She argued that SET hours are currently used for students on L2LP/L1LP and contrasted this with support for dyslexia students who can complete junior and senior cycle content. She insisted that the L2LP and L1LP programmes need resourcing akin to the LCA programme, where schools receive the equivalent of half a teacher for small cohorts with high needs.
Regional and administrative context
In reply in the debate, mention was made of additional SENOs placed in Kerry and North-East Kerry since last September and a circular about provision in medium and large schools following concerns from the NCSE and the department. The minister said he did not have school-specific details to hand but was willing to take the deputy's details and report back.
Next steps signalled
Rose Conway-Walsh said she would return to the issue and pressed the minister to examine current allocation practice, highlighting a need for a review of how L2LP and L1LP teaching hours are funded and deployed in mainstream schools.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Ministers, in February I submitted a PQ regarding resources for students accessing L2LP and L1LP students within the mainstream classes with mild to moderate learning difficulties. Now I received an answer but believe the real issue was deflected. The key question here is will the Department of Education allocate hours to schools in order to resource the teaching of L2LP or L1LP. At the moment it's taking out of the pool of SET hours. I'll give an example how one student in a school with eight hours a week of one-to-one learning phonics and Dolch words. There's a problem here. I had a minute, yes? A half a minute. Minister, the reality is that L2LP and L1LP programme needs allocation of hours similar to the LCA programme. That's where the schools receive half a teacher. The number of students may be low in numbers, but they're high in need. I'll come back to this again, Minister, because it's a real issue. In relation to the SEN allocation, maybe Deputy Conway Walsh, maybe I might reply back to you when you get a chance at the next part of your question, if that's OK. Thank you. Minister, I will actually give you this, that it sets out exactly what the issue is and the issue that needs to be addressed here. You have the student that I was talking about. He receives maths tuition of two hours a week covering basic units like money, like the days of the year, the week, the months and the year. I suppose the question is, Minister, is there any TD in the Dáil with their child at this level of learning in secondary school who would not expect their child to have an allocation of teaching hours separate to the general SET hours? SET hours are allocated, for example, such as dyslexia students who can learn but maybe spell phonetically. Where it looks like a word or sounds like a word, it will be fine, but the student is still able to complete the content of the junior cycle and the senior cycle schooling. As I was saying, Minister, the reality is that L2LP and L1LP programme needs allocation of hours similar to the LCA programme where the schools receive half a teacher and the number of students may be low, but the need is very high in this case and I want you to examine what's happening there. Thank you. I might respond directly back with the details. In relation to the issue in Kerry and in North-East Kerry, like we have the Senos and there has been extra Senos put into the field since last September. And my experience to date is that they have been working extremely well with families and with school communities to ensure that the need is being addressed as local as possible. There was a circular earlier in the year in relation to large schools, medium to large schools. That is because the NCSE and the department felt that it was being left unduly up to the smaller schools to actually lift the burden in relation to special classes. So we want to make sure that every school right across the country is making provision for special education because, as you rightly pointed out at the very start of your question, the need is growing and it is growing very much so right across the country. So we are going to have to, every school is going to have to. But in relation to that, I don't have the details in relation to the school to hand and it would be wrong of me to discuss it here without having the exact details on it or putting any commitments on it. But I certainly am willing to take the details from the deputy and I will report back to it.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
