Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow in Cork and I think here in the capital there will be a march on behalf of parents of children with special educational needs and in terms of disability services and the lack of provision there. As a Government Deputy, I will be in attendance in Cork. Recently, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I attended a meeting with the 12 principals of the special schools in Cork. Thankfully, the HSE and the Minister of State committed to reinstating all the therapist posts lost when the PDS programme came in. That was very welcome and I understand it is happening right across the country in special education settings. That said, although the advertisement of those posts is welcome, we all know that filling them is the real challenge. Can the Minister brief me on how we are going to fill them? Will it entail outsourcing, training existing staff or how are we going to fill the posts?

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