Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not dealt in any detail with what I asked her to do, which was to give reassurance to schools, teachers and families as to how the school profiling will be used. The process has started and the documentation has been returned to the Department. As I indicated, there are very real concerns about the validity and consistency of the process across the board and the purpose for which it will be used. In her final response, will the Minister give an assurance that the process will be fair to those who have that concern? Although a final decision on the implementation has not been made, the Minister has certainly decided to progress with it and to undertake school profiling.

The Minister mentioned difficulties with parents not being able to afford tests and diagnoses for children to ensure they can access resource hours. Unfortunately, that arises because the State is not providing enough resources to allow such testing. Often, it is only families which can afford to have a test carried out that can access those resource hours. There is an implementation timeline for the proposed new model. What are the current plans for introducing it?

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