Dr. Fidelma Brady:

I want to follow up on what Mr. O'Flanagan said about working on resources and on taking them out of the system. Mr. Harris gave very good detail on complex needs. We can also refer to it as the level of greatest need. We also have to bear in mind that there are many children in the schools today who the Department of Education are now going to have an effect on by the lack of resources or the movement of resources. Many of those children have not seen a therapist for months, if not years. The support they got in school was something at least, but we now have a situation where there is a risk that they will lose some of the valuable school support and there is still no sign of therapists being employed or of the CDNTs being properly manned. As Mr. O'Flanagan said, we had a fabulous PowerPoint presentation on NEPS yesterday, but that is on paper. Day after day, schools tell me they do not have NEPS psychologists because, for example, someone on went on maternity leave and was not replaced. Similarly, therapist positions with the CDNTs are not being filled. It would almost be laughable if it were not so sad that this is the situation in which we find ourselves. Yet, the only support that schools have had up to now in many cases, with this very vulnerable cohort of children, is now under threat by the reallocation.