Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Okay. Ms Cockerill's perspective on this is really good. Ms Cockerill is a teacher, the parent of a child with autism, she herself has autism, and is an advocate.

I want to ask you about the role of SENOs. I want to put on record that I value what SENOs do. They have an important role and many of them play a very positive role. I have, however, seen SENOs weigh in on situations where they may not fully understand the child whom they may have observed across a ten- or 15-minute period. They have not gotten a proper snapshot of what that child's needs are and how they can be met. I made the point in this committee room some months ago that SENOs have the role of God when it comes to a child's future. I think that some of them exceed what their actual remit is. I am a primary school teacher by profession but I would not go down the street to Holles Street hospital and start telling the surgeons "In my opinion you are doing this wrong and I am overriding your opinion". I would not cross the city to the Four Courts to take on a judge and override his or her opinion because I am not qualified in that area. Yet, week in, week out we are seeing SENOs around the country dismissing psychological reports. These are reports that have been made under clinical observation. I know that SENOs have an important skillset. They are important cogs in this whole process but there is a principle in law, surely, that you cannot dismiss someone's report and rubbish their recommendations of additional technology or SNA support. You cannot dismantle those recommendations unless you are equally, if not superiorly, qualified to that person. What would Ms Cockerill think about that?