Dr. Fergal Lynch:

I thank committee members for their comments and questions. I will begin with an issue raised by Deputy Sandra McLellan because it is a theme common to all questions, that is, whether we have looked at what the committee has been doing. I can confirm that we have. I have gone through all of the transcripts and issues raised. It is important that we join up all of the work done in that context. I reassure the committee that the Department is not doing something in a separate environment. I will work my way through the questions from members and group them as best I can.

Deputy Robert Troy asked about the future plans for the early years strategy and whether there was an overarching strategy. Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures is the overarching strategy which was published in April 2014. It forms the basis for everything we do. There are a number of constituent strategies, the most recent being the national participation strategy which was launched by the Minister last week. The youth strategy will be launched shortly. We are working on the early years strategy specifically, but as there are only so many things a small number of people can do at the one time, we are working our way through it as best we can. As I said, the overarching strategy is Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, on which we have made reasonable progress.

On costed options and targets and whether we have been given targets for the future, the Government has not specified a specific sum of money. However, the clear running instructions we have been given are to incur realistic costs on the basis of realistic implementation options. There is no suggestion that it is simply an option for one year; we are talking about a developmental process - I hope an investment platform - over a number of years. The options we will suggest will be on that basis. There is no specific sum of money, but we will look at the matter in each case in terms of costs and benefits. We have done a good deal of work in that regard.

There was a series of questions on the subject of special educational needs. The most important question is why a second group is necessary. It is being established for a very good reason. The overall interdepartmental group I chair is trying to set costed options for the Government covering the entire sector. The group we set up recently to look at special educational needs has a very specific purpose, which is to develop a model which would be agreed, I hope, between the sectors of health, education and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. We have had difficulty in agreeing on what the model should be and how it should operate. That is why it is being done in this way. We are drawing on the expertise of the National Disability Authority, the NCSE, Tusla, the Better Start programme and so on. The group has a larger number of representatives than the interdepartmental group specifically, but it is important-----