Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I have two brief points. The first is on the issue I asked about the last time as to whether parents have this choice of opting into different CDNTs, whether it is around the school or the home. It is important the HSE communicates with parents to make sure they know about that. That is not a criticism; it is a suggestion, in that we need to make sure all the parents know that is an option for them and that the CDNT needs to accommodate that.

The second question is on effectively outsourcing the therapies to the private sector while we are trying to fill some of these vacancies. There is a potential tension between the school, parents, the CDNT and in the case of Cork, the CETB. It is unfair to ask people who do not have medical expertise in this area to take on the responsibility of signing off on bringing in a private therapist.

That is the job of the experts in the area, namely, the HSE or the children's disability network team, CDNT. In the case of Cork and the special schools there, which the Minister of State is very familiar with, we thought we had a solution to this many months ago whereby the education and training board would effectively be given money to take on private therapists to fill the gap temporarily. It is understandably uncomfortable with that without effectively getting the approval of the HSE for the individual therapists to ensure there is a consistency of standard for therapy for the children it is responsible for in those schools. It is very important, if we are now reverting to requiring that fund to be managed by the network teams, that actually happens, because there are multiple network teams linked to the one school. That is going to be a problem with other new schools which are also planned.

We have been quite critical of the model which has been adopted, and perhaps unfairly so, because the model may well be fine. The problem is that if one has 900 vacancies, how does one expect any model to work? We have to be careful here that we do not look to reshape a model that may not be that flawed if it had the resources and staffing as it was designed to have to actually work. We need to careful that in trying to fix this problem, we are not restructuring something that may not be as broken we think it is, if it had the human resources needed to fill these 900 vacancies which the Minister of State said still need to be filled.

I am just expressing a word of caution there. I am not saying that it is the perfect model. I have spoken to many parents who are deeply frustrated trying to get supports for their children, many of whom have gone to court, which has been the trigger for the establishment of some of these special schools. Let us be honest because it has been legal cases which have forced the State's hand. They will go to court again, just like I would if I was a parent in this situation, to get to try to get their child the supports they need from the State.

I do not have the answer here but we do need, and I am sure the Minister of State has teams looking at this, to ensure that the model is right and that there are not mismatches and so on, by geography. Let us not change the model until it is given a fair chance with the resourcing needed.

The biggest message I would send is that we have to get some of the skills which are currently available in the private sector into the public system. We must find a way of doing that but in the meantime we just cannot be promising parents something and 18 months later be still trying to figure out how to do it. A great deal of effort is going into this. I am from a part of the country which has an acute problem with a number of schools but the State has to do better.