Ms Teresa Griffin:

There were two questions, with one earlier from Deputy McConalogue regarding expansion of the short days. Even for four year olds and five year olds, typically children can be phased into going to school. For the first week the child might go in for a very short time. When we did our consultation leading to policy advice on challenging behaviour and the education of children with challenging behaviour arising from a disability, it became very clear that there were a number of cases in which children with disruptive behaviour were only allowed attend school for a short period. In some cases it was part of a phased programme but in others, parents have told us they had no idea when the process would end, despite trying to engage with the school. They have no way of appealing to the school and, having spoken to representatives, they are told there may be a change if behaviour changes. We tried to find out a little more information at that stage but the education of children on short days seems to be nobody's responsibility and there is no way for the State to satisfy itself that these children are receiving appropriate education for their needs.

In our policy advice we suggest that there needs to be some oversight, and when the draft general scheme came to our attention, we saw there were grounds for appeal against a permanent expulsion or suspension of a student but there were no grounds for appeal where a student is enrolled and perhaps attending every day for one hour, with the process proceeding ad infinitum. Therefore the child may not get an education appropriate to his or her needs. We saw it as an opportunity at the drafting stage to see if the gap could be closed.

With regard to planning, I agree with Deputy Joan Collins. Through our special educational needs organisers we have much information from the HSE and parents regarding children with special educational needs. We try to supply a national provision of education to ensure there are enough places in special schools or special classes attached to mainstream schools. Many schools will open special classes but there are cases - I am currently aware of one - in which the special educational needs organiser finds it impossible to open a special class at post-primary level, while another school that already has two classes is willing to open another two to cater for people's needs. The resources are not shared evenly and we cannot plan for issues. Students would have to travel for longer in some instances, for example. There is a gap as schools are not obliged to provide the full range of educational provision, so where there is a need, typically within the school's normal catchment area or provision, the matter could be reflected in the drafting.