Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to draw the Minister of State's attention to some of the features of the school-led model. It is far less reliant on assessment. The Minister of State mentioned the development of an assessment industry and the avoidance of the loss of a lot of very valuable time in those assessments. Parents previously had to spend €500 or €600 on private assessments, which serve only as a gateway to further treatment.

Perhaps there should be less reliance on assessment and more collective delivery of service, whereby both the resource teacher and the SNA within the school could supplement the professional therapies in order that, even between intermittent therapeutic interventions, there might be continuity for the child and less withdrawal of him or her from the group in the way these needs are handled. I think there are in that model the seeds of a better approach than the one embedded in the HSE. I worry that while huge money is being put into attempts to improve the HSE model, it might in its structure have elements that are not best practice and some of that money will not deliver the opportunities we hope it will.

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