Mr. David Duffy:

We have an extensive range of recommendations that all of the organisations have made and I am sure the committee will review them. If I can, I will boil it down to three things. There is an element of making it a little bit simplistic, but there are three key areas that would answer the questions addressed by the Deputy. The first is prompt assessments. The second is planning for school places years ahead of when they are required. It should be easier to do in the post-primary and further education, FE, area because, in fairness to our primary colleagues, there is clearly a much longer lead-in time. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and the Department of Education have a significant amount of data, so it is hard to see why it cannot be done significantly ahead of when it is required.

The third element is the provision and expansion of in-school supports and out-of-school supports. I know the committee has a tight timeline to write its report. We have covered the July provision extensively this morning and as my Irish Primary Principals' Network, IPPN, colleagues have rightly said, August provision as well, in terms of summer provision. That is a very important issue, but I respectfully request that the committee would also look at how we support autistic children for the rest of the year because that is also very important.