Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. I commend the working group on the model it has proposed. It certainly has a great deal of merit. When it was initially published, I spoke to the Minister about the timeframe that might be used to roll it out. I was a little surprised to hear her say she does not think it will be ready for next September, and that it might even take until September 2016 to prepare it. The more I read about it and the more I became familiar with it, the more I accepted the need to press the pause button. A great deal of work has yet to be done on certain aspects of this proposal, such as the weighting system. The descriptors will have to be put in place. The issues with regard to the surveys that are currently being undertaken by schools will have to be resolved. We must ensure the weighting system that has been proposed is well thought through. The third highest weighting in the weighting system relates to the social context of the school. Concern has been relayed to me about the information that will be gathered as part of this process by means of surveys or guesstimates. Who will have access to that information? Maybe that could be clarified here today. What will happen with the information when it is gathered? There is a reluctance on the part of some parents to provide this information.

On the move away from allocating resources on the basis of diagnosis, we are all aware of the merits of the proposed new approach and the difficulties associated with the current system. Ms Dempsey referred to consulting other Departments on the need for a diagnosis to access additional supports. The Department must examine this matter internally. Some capitation grants, for instance, are allocated on the basis of the number of diagnosed students in a school. A school is allocated a baseline capitation grant and receives increased capitation for every student who has a learning difficulty. If we move to a system where a diagnosis is not required to secure additional resources, which we would all welcome, we must avoid circumstances where diagnoses are delayed as this would have an effect on schools' funding and finances that goes beyond the current model. The Department must take this factor into account. Was it taken into account in the deliberations on the proposed new model?

Budget 2011 included a commitment to increase the number of National Educational Psychological Service psychologists to 210 from the current figure of 173. As a significant number of these are on maternity or sick leave, I do not know how many of NEPS psychologists are currently working.

I welcome the proposed new model. Once detailed discussions of the proposal have concluded, there would be merit in having further consultations, particularly in respect of the waiting system and descriptors. Overall, I commend the report, which proposes a model that is much better than the current model.