Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

The strategy also provides for sectoral plans prepared by six Departments during 2006, the Citizens Information Act 2007 and a multiannual disability support investment programme worth €900 million between 2006 and 2009.

The Disability Act 2005 is one of the central elements of the national disability strategy, which sets out a range of statutory entitlements designed to underscore disabled people's engagement with everyday life. The emphasis is on mainstreaming as much as is practicable. Part 2 of the legislation makes provision for the introduction of specific obligations on the health services. Primary among these are a statutory entitlement to an independent assessment of health and education needs under section 8, a statement of services under section 11, an independent redress and complaints mechanism under section 14 if required and the opportunity to make an appeal to the independent disability appeals officer under section 18.

In case Senator O'Toole believes that I have forgotten, I will discuss budget 2009. The Government reiterated its commitment to people with disabilities by allocating an additional €20 million in the recent budget for health and education services for children with special educational needs. I acknowledge the input of the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, in this respect. Some €10 million of the allocation will be given to the HSE and €10 million to the Department of Education and Science to enable the services provided for children with special educational needs to be enhanced and strengthened. The €10 million allocated to the HSE will provide for 125 additional therapy posts in the disability and mental health services, targeted at children of school-going age.

An additional 90 posts will be provided in the disability services area to include speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists for children's disability services. There will be 35 additional posts for child and adolescent mental health services, including clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and social workers for new and existing multi-disciplinary teams.

Education is central to every child's opportunities in life and beyond. While some may not acknowledge it, an additional allocation in the education budget will bring the overall funding to €9.6 billion, an increase of more than 300% since 1997. This represents an additional €302 million on 2008 figures, a 3.2% increase. When the Higher Education Authority visited the Houses last week, it acknowledged and welcomed the substantial investment of €581 million in the school capital programme. We are all fighting for those in our constituencies.