Ms Teresa Griffin:

What we would say is that access should be based on the child's needs irrespective of age.

On the Deputy's question in respect of capacity, we have been working very hard with schools throughout the country on opening special classes and we have opened a significant number of special classes in recent years. For the coming school year we will open 190 special classes. We recognise that in some parts of the country there are pinch points. We have written to the Department to advise it of our concern about south county Dublin. In Cork, we believe there is an issue with regard to special school places rather than special class places. Generally, there are one to two places that can pop up from time to time but we work very well with the generality of schools on opening special classes. For a number of reasons, in some areas we have found it difficult to get schools to open up special classes. This can be because the school might not have space or an outdoor area to build in. There can be a number of reasons for this. It is disappointing that we have had to write to the Department to say that in south County Dublin there will be some areas where we will be unable to open special classes.