Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

One of the fundamental reasons is to give children an opportunity to get into school.

I accept that there was a poor approach to assessments in the past and that it will take time for us to have assessments for everybody — I am not arguing about that. However, when we held the discussions on the Disability Act 2005, with which I was deeply involved, we proposed a new entitlement in the legislation for assessments for children under five. It came into effect in June 2007 and will ensure children are assessed at an early age. The parents, medics and paramedics say the way to get it right is to make the assessment at a very young age. Deputy Kenny said this himself.

Improvements are also on the way in respect of access to health therapies. The programme's commitment is to use the National Treatment Purchase Fund to provide therapies for children under five who have been waiting for three months. I do not know the precise figure but Deputy Kenny stated there are 400 on the waiting list.

Schools that agree to open special classes get extra staff. Extra accommodation is being made available. I stated 80 special educational needs organisers have been in place to help parents get the appropriate place for their child. If one believes everything is not perfect, one should realise we have made an enormous attempt to deal with the matter.

On co-ordination, Deputy Kenny made the point that both the Health Service Executive and the Department of Education and Science are involved with special educational needs in schools. It is for that reason that I asked the Minister of State at the Departments of Health and Children and Education and Science, Deputy Devins, to assume a co-ordinating role between both Departments in respect of both policy and implementation.

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