Mr. Eddie Ward:

At the outset, I have to acknowledge that this outing has been informative and helpful. I was particularly interested in Senator Dolan's input, which was inspirational. Sometimes people think that because we are in policymaking or whatever we are insulated from the realities of life, but we all have our own story around these matters. The Senator's input was informative. I am only new to this brief but I have visited a number of schools since I took it over and what I saw were very dedicated people doing a job and an air of calmness in schools dealing with children with special needs. I was totally convinced that those children were in the best place possible and that good things were happening in the schools.

I believe it is all about quality, teaching and learning and, as a Department, we have to have a way of ensuring that is happening. Our inspectorate gives us positive feedback that good things are happening in our schools in an objective way. Planning is happening. There is a formula in the legislation that goes back a bit, and Mr. Kelly said that formula needs to be looked at, but, internationally, practice might have moved on from that formula that was enshrined in that particular legislation.

The issue of July provision was raised. To address it briefly, the review was done by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, a number of years ago as part of its autism review and it said the July provision scheme was inequitable. A working group is looking at how to come up with a scheme that might be more equitable. The NCSE recommendation was that the scheme should be for children with complex needs. It did not say who those children might be or identify the categories. Currently, the scheme is provided for two categories: children with severe and profound learning disabilities and students with autism spectrum disorder. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked who delivers it currently. There is a school strand and a parents strand. It costs €14 million, not that that money should necessarily be a big part of it but it certainly comes into the mathematics in terms of dividing a pie. A working group is looking at it. The NCSE hinted in its advice that the programme might be broader than just school curriculum issues and might be more activity based.

In terms of the work done so far, there has been consultation with a number of other Departments and State agencies as to the direction in which we might be going. I would hope that the group will have recommendations internally in the coming months. We should be able to talk to stakeholders later in the year, perhaps in September or October, with a view to making sure that we have a revamped programme to offer for July of next year. That is the tentative plan but there has been some work done on it in terms of devising a programme. An estimate is that something short of 2,000 children are in receipt of sports in our schools. We have to ask how we will prioritise the investment and whether we will cover everybody. If we are covering 9,500 students at a cost of €14 million, the Deputy can do the sums. Some decisions will have to be made and some priorities struck but I am anxious to move it on and I have taken on board what the committee is saying. We need to give it more urgency and we will do that.

On the bright side, we started off talking about the success of inclusion. I have children and they are now adults but things have changed inexorably from the time they were in primary and post-primary school. The number of supports and the amount of training and development, even if it is still inadequate, have increased proportionately. The level of commitment and information given to parents and engagement with parents has also improved.

We are going through a spot of innovation in the Department. That is assisted hugely by the development of the NCSE. If any member wants to know the membership of the NCSE, it is available on its website, including the backgrounds of the members. I can assure the members that they all have a background in and experience and knowledge of special education and related matters.

The in-school therapy project will innovate and test a model for in-school, occupational and speech and language therapies, and how agencies collaborate and work in schools. It is a test which we will probably enhance later in the year. There will be further announcements and engagement on that. We are trying to test a model that we can ultimately make mainstream, which will be evidence-based and will have the confidence of all stakeholders including parents and teachers. That is a very positive development. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and its establishment have been crucial to this new evidence-based focus on how we make policy and develop services.

The second matter to bring to the attention of the committee is that the NCSE is currently looking at the role of special schools and special classes, and how that is taking shape. There have been consultations about that policy review already. We expect that it will be delivered towards the middle of next year. Policy makers and practitioners will be looking at the impact of that in the years ahead. It is a good place to be because at least now we have the people with the expertise to look at these kinds of developments and to look at what we are doing locally and what international trends are, taking into account our local legislation, UN conventions and such, to make sure that we are in a good place in future.