Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The policy direction is moving towards the full implementation of the Act but finance is an issue. We had a tight financial situation and the National Council for Special Education suggested an additional investment over a period of years, up to €235 million per year across the education and health sectors, would be required to implement the Act. My Department believes the sum is a good deal more than that. We are moving gradually towards it. If we had more funding, we would move faster.

There has been a large increase in the number of resource teachers and SNAs in recent years. The NCSE is proposing new ways of allocating that are up for discussion and it would allocate resources in line with the level of need rather than by disability category. It would get rid of the medical model and ensure the resources are in the schools before the child comes in so that parents do not have to pay for expensive assessments.

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