Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows well and has mentioned, the provision for children with disabilities or special educational needs is limited in the extreme in the child care area. Where it is available at all, it is very limited and inconsistent throughout the country. The measure of any society is how it supports the most vulnerable members, and surely young children with additional and special needs are the most vulnerable people in society. Early intervention, particularly in this area, provides a major return. We need to do the right thing with this.

I ask the Minister to take the issue of resources for children with additional or special needs out of the wider review and deal with it immediately.

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