Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

AsIAm notes the inclusion of "carry out" in the wording of the Act and states that the process principals were being asked to do does not sound like conducting an assessment but, rather, simply collating existing information. It went on to say that even if principals had the knowledge and felt confident to do the assessment, there would be a conflict of interest. Principals assign the additional needs resources within a school and should not also be responsible for assessing what is needed.

AsIAm states the process would make relationships between school and home more fraught. We saw what happened to waiting lists when the agency tried to water down the required AON process. The court struck this down and so many thousands of assessments had to be redone, greatly extending the times.

The Minister of State said following up with an educational psychiatrist is only a stopgap. Is it? Is there a timeline in which the child can get an educational psychologist's AON?

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