Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I am unaccustomed to retorting to a Second Stage speech on Report Stage. I do not know how Deputy McGrath got away with that. The sectoral plans were a matter of discussion. A number of strategic Departments will be involved in sectoral plans. The Department of Education and Science will have a separate one. It would be ludicrous if my Department had a sectoral plan. It would not be particularly worthwhile in this context, except in regard to my employment sector, which comes under the remit of the Department of Finance.

Section 9(5) requires the Health Service Executive to commence an assessment within three months of the date of application and to complete it without undue delay. If the National Council for Special Education is to comply with the request — section 8(3) obliges it to do so — the council must act within these time frames. I am concerned that if I were to accept amendment No. 46 which appears to give reasonable leeway to the council the time frame given to it might become a factor for delay. The section as published requires compliance without qualification and it is the preference of the Minister to maintain that situation. I see where the Deputy is coming from, but sometimes in legislation if we tie ourselves into a time frame it can cause a delay as opposed to where one does not have a specific instruction. The spirit of what the Deputy advocates in the context of the legislation is reflected in the sections to which I referred.

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