Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue for discussion. As Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, I remain fully committed to the continued development and enhancement of our children’s disability services. This includes school-based therapy supports for special schools, including St. Killian’s in Cork and across the country. I met with the principal, as the Deputies outlined, and a number of parents from St Killian’s late last year and, at that stage, we discussed providing funding to the school to hire therapists as a way to get clinicians into the school. I still stand over that. Concerns were raised with this approach by both the HSE and the Department of Education, and over a series of Cabinet committee discussions, this proposal evolved into the pilot announced by me, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, last month. I most certainly had hoped that St. Killian’s would be part of the initial six schools announced but, unfortunately, this decision was not something within my gift alone. I had hoped for that, based on exactly what Deputy Barry said that it is the largest special school in Munster. The initial six special schools selected to participate in the pilot were chosen following detailed engagement between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Education, the HSE and the NCSE. The Department of Education identified and suggested schools for inclusion in phase 1 of the pilot based on educational need and detailed engagement undertaken by the Department of Education over recent years. The HSE then confirmed the six schools for inclusion in phase 1, from those suggested. The programme will be provided by the HSE’s children’s disability network teams, CDNTs, in 16 special schools, commencing in Cork and Dublin, and will be supported by the NCSE. The purpose of the programme is to provide the effective delivery of in-school therapy supports to children and will supplement existing services being provided through the CDNTs.

I fully recognise that there are many deserving schools who support children with complex needs and it is vitally important to note that an additional ten special schools will come on board on a phased basis during 2024-2025. To answer Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, I will certainly ask if they can be brought forward. Special schools not included in the initial phase of the pilot, which includes St. Killian’s, will be considered for selection as part of the next phase. It is anticipated that the additional ten schools will be identified by the end of October with a view to commencing those to progress in January 2025.

School selection will be based on where the needs profile of the children identified as greatest from an educational and health perspective, and where resourcing is not currently available in proportion to these needs. Regarding the provision of private therapies for children with disabilities, the Government and I remain supportive of the use of available private capacity, and the funding of same. This is only possible for schools as part of the pilot. The HSE will continue to prioritise the recruitment of remaining therapists to work in special schools.

Only today, I met with the HSE CEO, Mr. Bernard Gloster. He met with the relevant stakeholders - the REOs, the chief officers, the heads of services, the CEOs of the lead agencies, the CDNTs, HR, finance and the national integration access team - to ensure that it was clearly and unambiguously set out to everyone on that call that the pilot is a decision of Government and, as a public service, it is for implementation. This requires the same level of service to be in place in the schools by the end of the month. He set out to the REOs and all managers that it is non-negotiable.

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