Ms Martina Mannion:

I thank the Deputy for his kind words about the work of the Department and I will certainly pass that on to my colleagues.

On the budget, at a figure of over €10 billion it has been a very positive budget for education. The special education package is €2.7 billion, which is up €113 million on last year's figures. The Deputy has identified the areas with regard to teachers and SNAs that were covered on the special education side. It also includes €20 million for the summer programme, and I know we have talked previously about the value and importance of the summer programme. It allows us to run that expanded summer programme again this year. Uniquely this year, it includes €11 million for a special schools package, and it shows our commitment to the special schools. We recognise that for children in special schools, and the staff working there, there are unique challenges associated with working in those schools.

This special school package does two things. It ensures that all special schools catering for children with special educational needs can now have a deputy administrative principal. That is very important because it recognises that staff in special schools are managing large numbers of children with complex needs. They are engaging with their parents and with the HSE, and so it recognises there is a lot of work to be done for the staff in special schools. The other thing that the budget secured was 100 additional posts for special schools to recognise that now over 57% of all children in special schools range from between four and 18 years of age. Greater numbers of those, 57%, are at post-primary age. That is a change to the demographics in special schools, in that there are bigger numbers of children coming in at post-primary age, so we want to offer additional supports to those children.

There are other measures that are arguably but maybe not directly special education measures. Obviously, children will benefit from them. There is a €4 million school leadership package. There is an additional €5 million for counselling, which includes the continuation of the pilot in primary and secondary schools. There is €92 million for school transport.

On the issue the Deputy raised around poverty and disadvantage, the €80 million that has gone into the capitation, and the expansion of the free schoolbooks scheme to children up to junior certificate age, are measures that the Government has taken with regard to poverty.

Overall, we see huge value in the measures that have been adopted. We know that those special education teachers and SNAs are going to be used to support our most complex children. We are very happy that we have that additional budget and we are very grateful to have got that resourcing. We are very happy that summer programme and the special school package are there.

On the issue the Deputy raised regarding the pilot, I take it that he is talking about the school inclusion pilot programme in the 75 schools. I might ask Mr. Doody to come in with a little bit of detail on that.

On guidance, the position of the Department is that there are guidance counsellors in all of our post-primary schools. They ensure that all students have access to appropriate guidance in line with their needs. The Department is currently developing a national framework on lifelong guidance to ensure that everyone can have access to lifelong guidance to make meaningful, well-informed and conscious decisions. The themes of access, inclusion and universal design are all part of that framework. On supporting children with disabilities in the area of guidance, the policy at present is that it is a whole-of-school support, whereby all teachers who work in our schools support children in their educational and career choices in their daily interactions with them. Guidance counsellors will provide comprehensive support around applying to the higher education institutions, HEIs, including for the disability access route to education, DARE process. They will link in with students and external agencies, helping them with daily life and preparing for transitions. We might talk a little bit about the transitions programme as well, which we think is of huge value. Guidance counsellors will also liaise with the student support teams, and they ensure that any recommendations and reports on personal learning plans are implemented. That is specifically on career guidance. We are conscious, though, that because these career guidance counsellors are in post-primary schools, we have piloted a number of very important transitions pilots in the area of special schools. I might let Mr. Doody talk a little bit about that.

On our work with other Departments, we obviously work very closely across Government on a range of issues. We work with our colleagues in the Department of Social Protection and have done a lot of work with them with regard to the DEIS programme, including around the HP index and the identifiers for deprivation, to ensure that our students in those DEIS schools are getting the best supports. On the colleagues we work with, we work closely with the Departments of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Health, the HSE and other Departments and Government agencies with regard to providing supports for disabilities right across the spectrum. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is the lead Department in the area of disabilities, and we work closely with it on a number of initiatives it has come up with, including the national disability strategy and the autism strategy.

We could talk all day. That is a broad overview. Perhaps Mr. Doody will come in.