Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes, but this needs a whole-of-government approach. It cannot just be the Minister. If we do not have early intervention for children with special needs, the costs down the line for the rest of society will be huge. There has to be holistic thinking. If we get people trained in areas like the allied health professions and as nurses, doctors, teachers and so on, we will save society a lot of money down the line and we will be helping our young people to get qualified, thereby helping our society and economy. It is an almost 19th-century anachronism to ration access to education. We used to ration access to secondary education. If you suggested that now, people would think you were insane. We have to realise that we are in a new world now and we need these skills and professions and, therefore, we have to remove the financial barriers for people. I could have talked about many other sectors in this regard.

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