Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)

I thank everybody for coming. I thank Ms Cockerill for her great introduction. She mentioned the disconnect between the NCSE criteria and the reality on the ground. I spent all morning yesterday in a school trying to figure this out and I have a lot to say to the NCSE witnesses who will be before the committee later today. I have two folders of information on a school where a principal is trying to get extra SNAs. That is the level of difficulty involved. It is so frustrating. We sometimes see things that are wrong. What changes would Ms Cockerill like to see to the allocation model to make it more responsive to children's needs? The principal in the school to which I referred has spent considerable time over the past year and a half trying to get one more SNA.

It is a DEIS 1 school with at least 16 children who need SNAs and there are three in the school at the moment. One would make a difference. They are paying for one privately at the moment. What changes would the witnesses like to see in how SNAs are allocated?