Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her answer. I will pass on to her some of the concerns that were raised by the workers. Training, for example, was done on a lottery system. Access to training was not necessarily available to services that could have really benefited from the training, and some did not get it. Some services could have waited another year or so for the training and they received it. It is good to see that the figure of 900 places is an annual figure, but is there some way the training allocations could be a little bit fairer even if it was on first come first served basis rather than a lottery system? While the aim is to have all services receive the training, at the moment it is rolled out a bit unfairly.

There was also concern from practitioners who previously worked in services that focused on children with additional needs that the mainstreaming into all services of children who have additional needs provides the potential for some children to fall through the system if the inclusion model does not suit them. It is obviously a welcome measure and I understand the theory behind it, but these are the concerns. I have run over time so I will leave it at that for now.

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