Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I disagree with the Minister of State. A plan for an individual is an assessment. If one is talking about a school where there are students whose special needs vary slightly from one another and one is preparing a plan, that plan can relate to more than one student. Therefore, it is not an individual plan as such as set out in subsection (3). If one is talking about an assessment for a group of children, that is a group plan as distinct from an individual plan. The additional workload imposed on the principal and teachers of the school or whoever else is assigned that duty is enormous and it has consequences for children in the school other than those in the special needs category. It is important, therefore, that if there is a specific student with a specific need there is an individual plan specific to that student. That is the reason I seek an individual assessment and an individual plan rather than a global one that may embrace others or many, as the case may be, in certain schools.