Dr. Niall Muldoon:

There is no doubt that we have always believed children's rights needs to be a cross-governmental enterprise. It must involve the Department Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, as well as the Department of Education and the Department of Health. Even a simple point such as school nurses should have been sorted out years ago. In that case, there was joint funding between the Department of Health, the HSE and the Department of Education to provide services to children who need school nurses.

It needs to be done on a consistent basis. Legislation needs to start moving to force Departments to go past their old ways of doing things. As has been said, there is a series of battles for parents all the time. If Departments are fighting among themselves as to who provides what service, parents get caught up in that too.

We need to create multidisciplinary teams. We have a special inclusion model coming through which will involve therapists with the teaching education system. We also will have psychologists providing more assessments. The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 and its review allows a move to a collaborative approach rather than gatekeeping and fighting. That is the way forward as that will save money in the long run, if Departments are willing to do that. Legislators and committees like this need to push the Government in that direction.