Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

We have all become accustomed to hearing various Ministers using such terms in the course of their speeches as "rolling out" and "going forward". These phrases might mean something but in this instance it is a total contradiction of what they are actually doing. Earlier this year, 1,522 national schools were without access to the National Educational Psychological Service. At the end of October this year, the number of national schools without this service had increased to 1,663. An additional 141 national schools had lost that service. This has happened under a Minister who frequently declared in the past, particularly around this time last year when we were debating the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, that special needs would be a priority during her tenure as Minister for Education and Science. The sad fact is that the most vulnerable in our education system are being denied a service.