Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will start with the last part of the question. We are working on a national disability strategy, which will be published before the summer recess. A high level of engagement is happening right across Government with my Cabinet colleagues, including the Minister, Deputy Foley, the Minister for Education, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Transport. When talking about disability, it affects every single Department and the ambition will be high within that strategy. I want to say that at the outset.

Recruitment and retention is only part of it. The Deputy talked about therapists in schools, having them in our special schools and rolling that out to special classes in mainstream schools as part of the solution. We will also need to up recruitment at a domestic level. Looking at other things, in respect of higher education, as I said, an extra 150 therapists have been going through our third level system since last September. We are also looking at outreach to secondary schools and other ways we can upskill people from other disciplines.

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