Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the answer but I agree with the Minister of State that more work needs to be done. We are still being contacted by those who do not have places for next year. We need those cases sorted as soon as possible. It is not right. I would appreciate if the Minister of State could come back to me in writing with some more detail on the timeline for school-based therapies. I will be pushing this. On the common application system, it needs not to be a common application system from the point of view of failure. It has to be about delivery. We know the issues that exist. I do not know if it is the Minister of State or the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who would need to deal with that but it is very hard not to deal with the issue.

Deputy Dolan spoke about the INTO and the necessity for SENCOs. I agree with him on that. The INTO has also spoken about the fact that the capitation funding is not cutting the mustard. We heard what the CPSMA said today along with the principals of Scoil Aonghusa , St. Joseph's CBS, Tullyallen NS and Scoil Naomh Feighín, all in Louth. Deputy Joanna Byrne has dealt with some of those issues previously. We are talking about schools that are almost running into the ground because they do not have funding. This is not funding for the extras; it is to keep the show on the road. It needs to be addressed.

See this speech in context