Mr. Greg Browne:

We are here today because we serve a particular group of students in Irish education who have disabilities. They may not have the complex behavioural needs of other children but they are as important in the Irish education system as children with complex needs. There is a danger, as Deputy O'Meara said, of robbing Peter to pay Paul. There is going to be a crisis concerning children with complex needs. Everybody is aware of that, and the statistics bear it out. As I said, if there are 50,000 children with a diagnosis of autism, 16,000 of them will have complex needs. If we divide that 16,000 by six per class, we can work out the maths as to how many classes the Department will have to provide.