Dr. Fergal Lynch:

We will certainly take that matter into account. It will be dealt with in the youth strategy which we hope to finalise shortly.

To conclude my remarks on the special educational needs element, Deputy Robert Troy also asked about pilot schemes. I emphasise that there is no intention that pilot schemes will slow us down. We hope our overall approach will include other aspects that will benefit children with special needs. It is to try to have the model developed by early September in order that it can be introduced as part of the overall structure.

The Deputy also asked about progress made on the eight point quality plan. I will deal with a couple of its elements, the first being early years education regulations. We are working intensively on them and hope to produce them as quickly as possible. They will be a significant step forward. We have run into some practical legal difficulties. Currently there are regulations and guidelines. Effectively, the new system will comprise the regulations and guidelines incorporated into legal structures, but the process has proved more difficult and it is taking longer than we would have liked to complete. However, we are working intensively on it and I can assure the Deputy that we will bring forward the regulations for the Minister's consideration as quickly as possible. I do not wish to put too specific a timeframe on it because each time we think we are there we run into another practical legal issue. We place huge emphasis on the regulations, but we would like to get them right because there is no point in us producing them and then finding that there is a flaw in or a specific difficulty with them.

A number of Deputies and Senators asked about the qualifications required and why we had pushed back the qualification requirements to be met to September 2016 when initially they were to be met by September 2015. We were reluctant to do so, but we had to recommend to the Minister that this happen for a number of practical and logistical reasons. The most practical reason has to do with community-based services and community employment scheme workers. By definition, a number of community employment scheme workers tend not to have the qualification.

If they were no longer counted for the purposes of the ECCE scheme, in other words, if they became supernumery, then that would have significant implications for some of the centres. In some other instances, child care workers have worked their way through and got the qualification. It should be acknowledged that it is a significant qualification which, as far as I can recall, is comprised of eight modules. While a number of people have made good progress, not all of them would have been qualified by September 2015. If we had applied that aspect immediately from September 2015 then we would have run into a serious practical issue of service provision. There will always be an issue of quality versus an ability to provide a service in an appropriate timeframe, which is a theme that I shall return to later. That is why we approached the matter in the particular way that we did.

Let me outline some of the other things that we have been doing, under the quality agenda. There is the education focused inspections which we are about to start. There is the fact that Tusla is now publishing its own report online and has done so since the middle of 2013. It soon will publish retrospective reports as well. There are a number of things, under the heading of quality, that we are anxious to progress as quickly as possible.

A number of Deputies raised questions on how the schemes operate. They certainly struck a chord as a number of people have said that they are confusing, that a lot of them operate in different circumstances and different rules apply to schemes such as the CCS and TEC programmes. The comments will form part of our review. The question of whether one could streamline or make them more accessible will also be taken on board.

Equally, I take the point made by Deputy Troy about the Donegal report. It is not ideal to have segregation, in some instances, between the community and independent or private side, with the term depending on how one describes it. That is something we will take into account in what we are proposing as well. We are anxious to get the matter right, if at all possible.

I have dealt with Deputy McLellan's question on quality. On the disabilities issue, she asked me about increased capitation and special needs assistant supports. The overall question on how we deal with this will be looked at in the context of the interdepartmental group. Obviously we are looking at a number of different ways in which supports can be given in the future. One question which has been raised repeatedly is should we have an increased capitation payment. Another question that has been regularly raised is should we at least restore the cut that was introduced a number of years ago.