Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I absolutely accept the Deputy’s points. From the Department’s perspective, we build the school, provide the staffing and resources but the area of the therapies falls within the remit of the Department of Health, as the Deputy said. I want to acknowledge Cork ETB’s work in the area of special education. It is important to say that.

We have the school inclusion model and what we have learned from that. It is only one CHO but we are hopeful that into the future there would be opportunities to embed the therapists who have been in that CHO into the NCSE, and the work they have done can be moved on to other schools and so on. There are opportunities there. I understand the difficulties and challenges for staff, parents and guardians and for the children who are not getting the Department of Health resources in terms of therapy. We have engaged with the Department of Health and will continue to do so.