Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Under the current legislation, there is scope for a preschool provider to refuse access to somebody in the ECCE scheme on the basis that it does not have the resources or qualifications to deal with him or her. How will we find out the number of children with special educational needs who have been refused access to the scheme? This is very important. We can quantify the number of children who are splitting it over two years, but how are we going to quantify the number who have been refused access? There is scope to refuse access. Anecdotally, I know of such cases.