Irish Examiner View: Failure to help visually-impaired schoolchildren shames society

In a country as rich as Ireland, there is no recurring funding for a body that could help the 4,000 children in the schools system who suffer visual disabilities.

James Whelan reading braille, at the Sensory Storytime Sessions as part of Braille Reading Day, at Childvision, National Education Centre for Blind Children. Picture: Julien Behal

The story did not command major headlines this week, possibly because it broke the same day as the warning that homecare, disability, and addiction services “face collapse” through an inability to recruit workers at competitive market rates. 

But as an example of societal parsimony and State indifference, it would be difficult to top the evidence provided to an Oireachtas committee about the dire challenges facing blind and visually-impaired children in the nation’s schools.