Ms Áine Lawlor:

However, we support the development of posts into education because that is going to enhance recruitment into Ireland. People can come and see that they can work in a school or health system. That is a positive development for us. It is important that it is incremental. While we want to see it move quite quickly outside of special schools, it is important that it is incremental because we cannot take all our health service staff into education either. It is an incremental development. A commitment is needed in this regard to ensure there are a certain number of posts going in this year and next year which coincides with the development of additional places from the universities.