Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We can certainly look at that. There is a need for everybody to pull together. I will offer two views that are slightly beyond the remit of my Department but I speak as somebody with a real interest in this issue. We have a model that I was involved in when I was in the Department of Health, where we started in-school therapies. It seems to be working quite well in the schools that it has been in, and I happen to have one in my own constituency. It seems a very sensible way of proceeding. To go back to Deputy Joan Collins's point about trying to make sure people can get through the school system and reach their full potential so they are ready and harnessed to go onto the next level, that in-school therapy piece is valuable.

The second point is that under the comprehensive employment strategy implementation group, there is a steering group to progress one of the actions, and that action is to provide access to all school leavers requiring specialist supports to an appropriate transition programme. We are on it and so are several other Departments, and there are two pilot projects or demonstration projects, one in Galway and one in north Dublin. To me, that also sounds like a sensible way to proceed.

If I am to be self-critical or collectively critical, we sometimes run the risk of having more pilots than Ryanair. If we know that something makes sense and if there are many examples of good practice, we should act on that. This is the reason I push for Path 4. I know that what they are doing in Trinity College in the centre for people with intellectual disabilities is changing lives and I know what they are doing with the in-school therapies is changing lives. It sounds to me like this demonstration project on specialist supports for those leaving school in Galway and north Dublin will do the same. What we have not been very good at doing over the years in Ireland, and I am not just talking about this Government, is establishing what is best practice and rolling it out. I am hoping that one of the things that might come from this committee is a bit of a shove to say there are things that we know are working well, here is what we have and identify it, and can we ever get on with making sure there is equity of access. I really think that could be transformational. The students in the Trinity centre for people with intellectual disabilities today are getting such a top-class experience but we want that to become the norm in the third level system. The places with in-school therapies are better than those that do not have them. That should become the norm. Members get the point.