Professor Sue Buckley:

Deputy Bannon is correct. There is a process going on, from the publication of that report May last. There is a working group and Ms Griffin is on one of the working groups advising. The Department is going in the right direction but I am not quite sure what is the timescale. If I had a five year old with Down's syndrome, I would be very worried. There is a danger that there will be a group of children who are not getting enough support who will struggle and fail quite quickly in school before one gets to that point.

Obviously, that is one of the issues for parents whose children are just starting school and the only way we can address that is to get the Department to recognise them as low incidence for the moment, if that makes sense. The only way they can get the extra help currently is to recognise them as low incidence. We are not talking about a large group of children and if somebody says to me the Department cannot afford it, I would say it is a question of human rights and equity.

The children on the list include children with autism and high IQs, etc. One could probably take 15 minutes per week from other children and have enough for this group of children. It is about using the budget equitably. Unless the children in question get more support, we will be failing them. This is why I was asked to consider the staff and focus on the argument - they should be low-incidence - in addition to feeding in. There is a simple solution until a new system is in place.