Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If a child's provision is in a spectrum, then any child in that spectrum has to be admitted. The Minister defines the special unit. When a special unit is created it is created for a certain category of need. It is equipped to meet the needs of those children. It is staffed with people with the experience to deliver to those particular children. If it is a deaf unit, it will have different categories of staff and all the rest of it. All this measure is doing is protecting the integrity of the provision that is being made, namely, that it will be for children who meet those categories. This is not designed to find a way of denying access. It is to protect the provision of those places for children for whom it is the appropriate setting. In view of the concern, I will ask for a note to provide that assurance but I am assured by my officials that is the purpose of this measure. That is the way it has been drafted. It has been done specifically at the request of groups who want to see that the special provision is provided to the appropriate children.