Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are welcome proposals in the programme for Government on the very urgent need to improve services and supports for children with additional needs. Every day I talk to parents who are utterly frustrated and very concerned about the lack of timely interventions through appropriate therapies. We need a common application system and enough special classes to enable children attend schools in their local community. Proposals are not enough. We need urgency attached to a comprehensive implementation plan for such measures. We need a national therapy service in education with therapists providing therapies in schools. This service can be built quickly on the newly sanctioned educational therapy support service of the NCSE. A successful and early roll-out of a national therapy service for schools is essential and delays will no longer be acceptable. Those children have waited far too long for basic and essential supports.

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