Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

At the outset of my ministry I made it clear that each sector within the education system was important and it would be highly dangerous to ignore the third level sector in favour of any one of the other two sectors, because we need each of them for the future of society and the economy. My concentration continues to be on disadvantage and special needs. The amount of extra Exchequer spending on special needs has been evident in the last couple of months, including the huge increases on addressing disadvantage. The new co-ordinated approach and the attention on disadvantage will be evident when the new plan is launched in the next few weeks. I accept that pre-school early intervention is essential for disadvantaged areas. It is also important to examine other provisions in disadvantaged areas because there is no point in duplicating provisions. The role of parents, the community and pre-school services must be examined together, but it is my intention to extend it.

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