Mr. Bernard O'Regan:

There absolutely is, and that is very much part of the CDNT model we are looking at. Supports can be provided to a child across all of their environments, including in school. As a result, it is not binary and it is not an either-or situation. We must await the evaluation of the school inclusion model. As Ms O'Kelly has said, the evaluation, I suspect, will point to positives for two reasons. First, it was a project that focused on supporting children to access the school curriculum. That was its primary focus, so it was not looking to assess what happens to a child in other environments. In terms of what it set out to do then it will demonstrate a positive outcome. Our role is to look across the totality of a child's life not just the school part. Like everything, it depends on what one sets out to do and then what are the questions being asked in terms of evaluating afterwards but there will be benefits.

The purpose of the work we are trying to do and the discussions we have with colleagues in the Department of Education, the NCSE and so on is to build capacity, under the governance of the CDNT, in order that we have a service designed that takes account of the child wherever he or she may be, including in school. It is unfortunate that there is a perception and, in some cases, the reality has developed whereby staff, for whatever reason, were not working with children in schools. There is no reason that cannot happen. It was never the intention of the policy.