Sir, – Further to "Affluent areas receive more special needs teaching hours" (Joe Humphreys and Pamela Duncan, Front Page, September 8th) and accompanying graph and table, while wealthy parents explain many of the inequalities, it doesn't explain why Roscommon has 4.1 students per resource hour, while neighbouring Leitrim has 7.6. After all, I am not aware that Roscommon has the most affluent parents in the country outside the M50.
As someone who greatly benefited from a special needs assistant, I am horrified to think that there are people, who are probably in greater need than I ever was, who are not getting any assistance. However, it is important to not just pin blame on the parents of south Dublin for getting private diagnoses in support of their applications– any parent with the resources would do the same.
The blame, as always, lies with the State, which created this flawed system, and failed to live up to any basic notion of fairness or equality. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS M CREAMER,
Ballinamore,
Co Leitrim.