John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. There is a lot of food for thought. As the Minister of State knows, the scarcity of ASD places and other places for children with additional needs and special classes, notwithstanding improvements, which I wish to acknowledge, places huge financial, psychological and other unnecessary stresses on parents who are already stretched as parents of children with additional needs. I think the Minister of State will agree that the burden of application should not fall exclusively on the parents. I am sure the Minister and Minister of State are aware that many parents have to make multiple applications, which is the first point I wish to make. Those multiple applications may necessitate providing reports such as psychological assessments and doctors' reports, which cost money. The applications cost money. One parent in a group I met recently told me that the application process had already cost them €1,000 as they had applied to so many schools. Then, there is the additional issue of those schools retaining the data on their child, even though their child's application may be unsuccessful. Will the Minister of State provide information on any pilots of a centralised system working successfully at the moment?

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