Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Who has statutory responsibility? Is it the HSE or the Department of Education and Skills? Neither of them claims responsibility. Currently, the provision of services is disjointed throughout the country. In a number of counties, service provision is positive while in others, it is poor. The Minister alluded to the Pobal survey that was published during the summer which highlighted that 1,254 services reported that they had at least one child with a disability and there were a total of 3,899 children with varying disabilities in services. If one extrapolates those figures based on the 61% response rate, it means that more than 6,000 children with a disability attend these services. When I asked the Minister's predecessor last year the number of children with a disability who were availing of the preschool year over two years, to which he alluded, she replied it was only approximately 260. Given that according to the Pobal survey, approximately 6,000 children with special education needs avail of these services, why are only 260 children availing of the preschool year over two years?

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