Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The witnesses are very welcome. I am glad of the occasion to thank them on the record for the great work that they do. I was always aware of them in the last 20 years a Member of the Oireachtas and a member of local authorities, but when one is in the Department of Health for two and a half years as a Minister of State, you realise you have people who watch your back and who are absolutely brilliant. We are very fortunate to have them. I always make the analogy with when I was in business and over in the chamber of commerce and they could be CEOs of any multinational and so I thank them very much. Getting around to it, I thank them for coming before the committee today. I am not referring to any other situation but people like the witnesses who come in here should be treated with respect and dignity and given due process. I know we can ask hard questions but if I am a politician or a member of the public and I go somewhere, I expect to be treated like that as well. I thank them for coming in. We will not be too hard on them or anything like that because they are doing great work. I worked with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and she was formidable. She was a very good colleague and I know that you are doing great work.

Can Mr. Ó Conaill elaborate a bit more on the transition from a medical model of support towards a basic human rights-based approach, with people with disabilities enjoying the same rights to services as other citizens? Will he also outline a bit more on the awareness campaign focusing on the equal human rights of people with disabilities, which is being finalised?

The issue was raised that 98% of all children with special education needs attend mainstream settings. I am aware of other settings mentioned on a regional basis. Is there any chance of getting to 100%? I know you probably need a few intervention schools that provide that extra special intervention as well.

When does the Department think the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 will be available? It may have been said but I just did not get whether it will be weeks or months. It is great to see that there were 28,000 responses from parents, students and schools to the survey. This will be a huge amount of information and it will be very valuable.

What exactly is needed for the expansion of the summer programme? I have seen now where there are, I will not say unintended consequences, but we have so many SENOs and the 54 additional educational psychologists. Is it difficult to recruit these or where are the people being recruited coming from? Are they coming from other sectors, from outside the country or from other jurisdictions? Will the witnesses elaborate on that? I thank them again for the great work they do.