Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for her questions. I will start with the SNAs. A lot of work has been done by the Department on the workforce development programme for SNAs. At the outset, I note the hugely positive impact that SNAs have within school communities and in making sure that children with additional needs attend and flourish in school. SNAs have developed into a hugely important part of the system. They do amazing work and are committed to it.

The Deputy referred to the early years sector. The early years sector is under the aegis of the Department led by the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton. However, we are very conscious of it.

One of the issues we noticed over the past while was that we were not getting as early as possible the information that would be available to the Department of children, including on the access and inclusion model, AIM, programme in the early childhood educations schools, or that which would be with the Department of Social Protection regarding children who qualify for the domiciliary care allowance. We are working in silos. We need to work better together, to have an understanding and to have information available to us at an earlier stage.

The Deputy mentioned alternative therapies. There is a huge volume of work going on in this regard. It probably is not one of my Department's roles, but work is going on right across the system, within the HSE and, in particular, service providers, on developing alternative therapies for children and people with additional needs. There is an issue with securing additional occupational therapists. All parties to the Cabinet subcommittee on disabilities have being working to ensure we work as one, including the Department of higher and further education, under the Minister, Deputy Lawless. We must expand the number of occupational therapists and speech and language therapists coming through the system. The number has been increased as of this year, and a roadmap is in place to have more people graduating. We cannot rob Peter to pay Paul by bringing therapists into one system and taking them out of another. We need to work together to ensure we have sufficient therapists.

There are a number of other issues. We are looking to simplify the process whereby CORU and other bodies regulate the speech and language therapists and occupational therapists coming into the country. We must ensure that they are coming in and that there are no complications. It is about making sure every road block is taken down to enable as many people as possible to work within the system.

On having one access point, there has been much discussion within the HSE about the one-door policy. The difficulty is there are a number of challenges for parents of children with additional needs in having to go here, there and everywhere to get information. We want a streamlined, one-door policy. There is enough pressure and stress on parents. Streamlining the access point is something all of us in the Departments of education and disability are very much keen to do.

Reference was made to the transition from primary to post-primary school. There are probably four pressure points in the lives of people with additional needs, namely going into preschool, going from preschool to primary school, going from primary to post-primary and the transition from education. The transition from primary to post-primary is hugely challenging, and then it is about making sure there is a pathway after people complete their education. The national disability strategy makes specific reference to going from primary to post-primary because it is one of the areas in which we see challenges.