Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)

From talking to SNAs, they are really concerned by what Mr. Pike refers to, which is that the needs of the class of autistic students will be perceived to be greater than the need in mainstream and students in mainstream will not be able to cope.

Another issue is that a lot of students start school without assessments because there is a backlog in assessments and therefore the need for an SNA is not being identified, even though they clearly need one. Could Mr. Pike see us moving to a situation where the Department and the NCSE will listen better to school principals and teachers when they say a student needs an SNA?