It's estimated that at least four per cent of the school-going population have disabilities. The proportion may, in fact, be higher but, as the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities points out, four per cent is the figure it had to concern itself with specifically "due to the poor quality of existing statistics."

The report explains that about 8,000 pupils with disabilities are enrolled in 114 special schools and about 3,800 children with various disabilities are in special classes in primary schools. There are also about 8,000 with "specific disabilities" in ordinary classes in primary schools.

A further 2,300 are enrolled in 48 special classes at second-level. Another 100 pupils with disabilities are enrolled in the five designated second-level schools. According to the commission's report, the most recent figures indicate that about 1,000 third-level students have disabilities. "Unfortunately," it continues, "no comprehensive figures are available for the numbers of children with disabilities in pre-school or the number of adults with disabilities attending local adult education centres."

The report estimated that up to another 2.5 per cent of the population in mainstream education are people with disabilities.