Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best. Starting with the question from Deputy Conway-Walsh, I thank her for raising this issue concerning the lack of autism places in County Mayo. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, meets weekly with the National Council for Special Education and I will ask her to raise at the next meeting the specific issue of the situation in County Mayo and revert to Deputy Conway-Walsh directly.

Moving to Deputy Murphy and his query in relation to childcare places, I am sorry to hear about the situation with Krafty Kidz and St. Mary's GAA club in Saggart, and the very difficult impact it has had on people. I am sure this includes the children, who make friends and get used to going to places, etc. I wonder if this is something we could discuss with the county childcare committee. By the way, I too favour moving to a new model of childcare and I will talk lots about this in the weeks ahead. I think our model is overly reliant on private providers. There will always be a need for some private provision, but when we look at international comparisons, we can see that our system is overly reliant on private provision rather than public provision. Perhaps this is a matter for another day. I will follow up on this issue with the county childcare committee.

Regarding Deputy Boyd Barrett's question, there is validity to his point. To give the truth again, there has been no recruitment freeze in relation to the CDNTs. In fact, when there was the embargo on recruitment or the recruitment pause - call it what you wish - CDNTs were exempt from it. Recruitment campaigns were run. The Deputy's figures, though, are right. It has been extremely hard to attract and recruit people into the sector at a time of full employment. We have seen numbers in the sector grow somewhat. I do not have the figures to hand, but I will send them to the Deputy. He is highlighting the scale of the challenge we face in trying to fully staff the CDNTs. I can tell the Deputy that we have the money to start more of them, but the challenge in recruitment belies that reality. I will ask that a specific look is taken at that CDNT and I will come back to the Deputy with a note on what I think can happen in recruitment in the months ahead.

I acknowledge Deputy Durkan's advocacy of the voice of the child in general, but specifically the voice of the child in family law cases and our courts system. The Deputy and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, have had many detailed discussions in this regard. The Minister has brought forward several proposals concerning this matter, including reform of the family law courts. She has also published an overview that she did of international comparisons and best practices. I believe this paves the way forward. We will keep in touch with the Deputy on this matter.

On Deputy Ó Murchú's question, I think he is right. It is too easy to hammer the schools and he is right to suggest we should not. What we need to do is to have a better way of looking at how we can bring schools together with communities to plan ahead in terms of the need for autism classes. I believe schools have an obligation to do more, absolutely, but we also have an obligation to listen to them in terms of what they need. It is often quite practical things. The D15 task force that has been established is having its first meeting today. This could very much be a model that could be rolled out right across the country, should it work, in respect of how we can bring people around the table and try to forward plan. I say this because when I talk to the parents of kids with special needs, I find there is a sense of anxiety that everything is always last minute. They might get a place but it would be at the last minute. We can do that better. If the Deputy wants to send me the details of the particular case he endeavoured to raise, I will be happy to follow up on it for him.

Turning to the question from Deputy Tóibín on the issue of childcare, he is right. I accept it is not just an issue of fees; there is also an issue of access and the model we want to build. I will point out that while it is true that some preschool services have closed, it is also true that some preschool services have opened. The numbers available to me show there has been an overall increase of 161 in the number of services in the sector this year. We have also made some changes in relation to the issue of the freeze and trying to respond to some of the issues raised by the sector. Maybe I can send the Deputy a note on this issue. Go raibh maith agat.

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