Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a red-line issue for me going into any new government that we would have multidisciplinary teams in our schools starting with all the special schools, of which there are about 116, and then extending it out. I am conscious of the pilot the Deputy developed at the time which I warmly welcomed. I have been a long-standing advocate for the multidisciplinary approach where all the different professionals are working together with teachers in situ. As the Deputy may know, that has been resisted strongly in the health service. The HSE in particular favours community development network teams, which I also understand to a degree, but that has not worked. Children are not getting access to therapists. We have to change. We tried the pilot and the pilot is struggling at the moment, if the truth be told, but we need all parties to the next Government, whatever those parties may be, to commit to this departure from existing policy.

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