Ms Maria Gleeson-Cary:

I can see the Cathaoirleach's point of view. We very much welcome the expansion of that programme. It is important to children with disabilities. The IASLT would be advocating for our therapists in training working as therapy assistants in the health service rather than in schools. It offers them experience of clinical training. It can offer them an understanding of the different areas of the health services. It can also help us to deliver services. We would be advocating for funding to be ring-fenced for us to use our therapists as assistance rather than in a school programme where the expectation might be that they work as qualified speech and language therapists when they are not. I suppose we would be concerned about that but we would love the chance to offer them more experience and to be able to use them in helping us deliver services more effectively.