Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I too welcome the Minister and congratulate the Department on its efforts so far. I am not saying that matters are ideal by any means, but progress is being made. I have read the statistics on funding for residential placements and respite and day places over the past few years. From psychiatric hospitals, we have moved towards community-based houses, which is to be welcomed. Some measures are coming forward, but the subject is very difficult.

Nobody has the real answer to how we can make progress on early intervention. We must start at that level. Perhaps it goes back as far as the maternity hospitals, where the problem may be detected, although, equally, that may not happen for a year or two. However, within two years of a baby being born, early indicators and identifiers will show up. That is where we must start, since it is the core element. If we can have early identification of the problem and examine it to see what is available at the pre-school level, we may be able to put a proper plan in place, identifying what measures can be taken regarding support and backup services for parents. There is a huge gap and that is the core of the problem.

As a professional in the field dealing with assessments at post-primary level and very often having to deal with attention deficit disorder, an area similar to that of autism, I feel it is too late at that stage. Parents suddenly realise when their child is ten, 11 or 12 that he or she is not fitting in with the mainstream and that something is wrong. It is not picked up at that point. The human resources of special teachers and educational and clinical psychologists are not available. There is a huge gap.

When the new legislation is introduced, I ask the Minister to consider the pre-school level and see that we have the parents with us from the maternity hospital stage. The health boards must be taken on board at that stage so that we have the psychologists, the home-school links and the public health nurses. There is a whole area of professionals at that level. We need not go into the issue of resource teachers or talk about speech therapists or anything of that sort at that stage. We must plan very early and try to introduce integrated arrangements for children aged two or three. That would help parents greatly. We must facilitate that as the child gets older. It is a very important issue and if we picked the problem up at that point, it might help relieve many of the problems.

There is no doubt that we have skipped on proper assessments. We do not have the educational or clinical psychologists, the medicine or the health board professionals in place. We must also use our skills in bringing the parents along with us. That resource area has been lacking in recent years. There is a significant overlap between the Department of Education and Science, in its delivery of such a programme for children with special needs, and the Department of Health and Children, which must take up the work with clinical psychologists and the other professionals who must be brought on board. One is not aware of what the other is doing, as I know, having worked in the system. If one has a plan for an assessment by an educational psychologist, one must wait until one can refer the matter to the Department of Health and Children. One wastes six or nine months before one comes to a final report, which is a huge gap. All that should be brought together.

I am not sure if the National Council for Special Education will be part of the new Bill or whether it has already been set up. However, that national council should be given a role because its members are the people to bring matters together quickly. One should not forget that the parents are waiting, wondering what will happen with their sons and daughters. We must try to facilitate them instead of writing reports. I have been sitting on such reports.