Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State mentioned, some aspects of the Act were commenced, such as that providing for the establishment of the NCSE.

I understand the NCSE prepared an implementation report back in 2006 that set out the sequence in which the remaining provisions of the Act should be commenced and estimated a level of investment, at that time, for their implementation. It was planned to implement the remaining provisions by 2010 but a decision was taken in 2008 to suspend that implementation. I am not sure exactly why that was done. It may have been to do with the level of investment that was required. An independent appeals element was established in the form of the Special Education Appeals Board, but when the term of the inaugural board was up, no new board was formed. It just seemed to end at that point and there were elements that were supposed to commence which did not.

The Minister of State outlined the level of investment that is in place and pointed to changes that have been made. There has been much speculation around when the Act will be fully implemented and calls by a number of representative groups, on behalf of children with special needs, for a full commencement. Will the Minister of State undertake to publish a plan indicating whether the remainder of the Act is to be implemented or if something will be put in place? We need to know exactly what is intended to be done.

See this speech in context