Mr. Enda McGorman:

I thank the Senator for her support to schools and school leaders. We are all here because we care. I entered the teaching profession to be a teacher and to teach and, as the Deputy said, I was sucked into management, but my passion is for the children in our schools. That applies across the board to everyone here. The Senator talks about access to services and that is what we are craving, that when we put our hands out, when support for the many becomes support for the few and we realise we need external support, that is the point where children are being failed. As we said earlier, they are being placed on waiting lists that are getting longer. We must ensure people are in those roles. Unfortunately the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, that are set up are understaffed. The Senator will know this from the autism committee that has also met about this. The three CDNTs in my area, Blanchardstown, Blakestown and Balbriggan are 40% staffed. That means they are 60% down on what they should have. Not only is it impossible for the teams to do the work but people are leaving those teams because they cannot cope with the demands being made of them. We need to address access to all of these professional services and some of the ideas-----