Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can clearly hear the Deputy's passion in advocating on behalf of these children. I reiterate what I said earlier that I am very confident - I can only push it so far - that there will be a satisfactory resolution to this. I have personally spoken to the NCSE and the Department on this. I am encouraged and glad to hear there was a conversation yesterday with the principal and with the mother which indicates there is movement already on this. I do not doubt the Deputy's bona fides regarding the correspondence he outlined.

Having such an assistive technology scheme will be of no benefit if we are not providing equipment that is bespoke to a particular child. It needs to be particular to the child who has an additional need. Having said that, there are many types of equipment already in existence. There are audiological supports for hearing improvements, there is brain equipment and there is computer equipment with modified software for physical or severe communicative disabilities. There is a range of equipment.

We will need to update over the next number of years the type of assistive technology and that is under review also. There will be consultation around that from the first quarter of next year, because technology is moving at pace. Even the assistive technology that we have now will probably need to be updated in years to come in order to be able to assist children to communicate. I say this because this is a matter of communication at the end of the day, as well as of whatever additional needs a child may have. If that assistive technology equipment is going to assist them in communicating, then there is an onus on us to provide for that. The funding is there. There is an extra €2 million the budget, as I have said. I want to reassure the Deputy that I will do everything that I can to make sure that there is a satisfactory conclusion to this issue for him. I thank him for his advocacy.

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