Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for my absence earlier - I was detained at the same vote in the Seanad. I know the Minister has referred to other issues in respect of DEIS schools. Is the Department of Education and Skills doing anything to establish a better link with the Department of Health on the services provided in those areas? Some of the disadvantaged schools in Darndale have highlighted that they have children with serious behavioural problems who were supposed to be given appointments with behavioural psychologists. However, the parents do not bring them and then the school has a problem getting access to other resources because it cannot get the report confirming that the child has a problem. Given that many children from the school are attending that service two miles away, it would make much more sense if the health service staff, who are sitting waiting for the children to turn up, actually delivered it for a few hours a week at the school. Is much work going on in that area?

It is a year since we published the Bill to change section 37 of the Employment Equality Act and I raised it with the Minister, Deputy Shatter, in the Seanad last year. I ask the Minister to step up the work on that. As he knows, at the end of last year's debate, the Minister, Deputy Shatter, said he was going to wait until the equality bodies merged and then task them with the project. Not only have they not come forward with the proposals, but the bodies have not been merged. While I know it is something to which the Minister, Deputy Quinn, is personally committed, I ask him to make a greater Government push to get it done. We are now facing into another school year without it being addressed. I commend the work the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has already done. I know BeLonG To is launching its Stand Up! campaign tonight with financial support from the Department of Education and Skills. I commend the work the Minister is doing on homophobic bullying, but I would like to see more urgency in changing the legislation.