Ms Anne O'Rourke:

I was watching Cara Darmody recently in the debate here. There are 15,000 children, I gather, on waiting lists and potentially 25,000 by the end of the year. If the resources were there to have all those assessments done privately, that would cost something in the region of €625 million. What could we do with that amount of money to put in resources for intervention to support families, children, parents and schools? There are potentially many children on the AON waiting list who are there for the very reason Ms Lawlor said, because parents think it may be the only way to get supports.

With regard to the Department of education and NEPS, the continuum of support is a very robust process for supporting children. I remember back in the day in NEPS when the whole thing of IAP versus continued support was being put in place. Since then, NEPS has had the time to put in a strong framework which is, in effect, the same as an IAP process except it is not under legislation. Most children will have a review in school of their continuous support plan at least once if not twice a year.

We need to look at the systems we have and what can be done better. There is a Japanese saying that if you get on the wrong train, the sooner you get off the better because the longer you stay on it, the farther back you have to go and the more expensive it is. I think that is where we are potentially with the AON process and the review of the legislation.

We also need to bring the language we use in line because we use "disability" and we use "additional educational needs". We need a conversation around what is most appropriate in an evolving society for the language we are using.