Ms Martina Mannion:

With regard to strategic engagement at early years level, we want to prioritise space in our schools for early intervention classes if they are needed. They take children from the age of two and a half. We have 151 early intervention classes for children with autism throughout the country, 20 of which opened in the past two years. They are in every county in Ireland. We see very important alignment through having early intervention classes as they are needed in mainstream schools.

Where we have capacity and where there is a need for those early intervention classes, we try to link them to our schools so that they provide those opportunities. That is an important step in ensuring we have that link between early years outside of the non-special educational needs that are also supported on local campuses.