Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Warfield for tabling this amendment. As the House will be aware, it relates to the core functions of the NCSE and its staff. As I mentioned to the Senator earlier, when speaking to another amendment he had tabled, perhaps the current review of the EPSEN Act is the appropriate forum in which to look at what the Senator suggests. I stress to him, though, that I am not opposed at all to the idea of the NCSE preparing an annual report on the forward-planning of special classes and special school places. I do not disagree with that at all. It would be of great value to me, as Minister of State with responsibility for special education, and to the Department. The Senator's amendment, however, is quite detailed. Significant planning would be involved to review the full detail of this. There are also resource implications in respect of staffing and IT and as to whether any data-sharing issues would need to be addressed. It is not possible to consider all these issues at this time, but the Senator makes a valid proposal that is certainly not without merit. As I said, it is a good idea. At least with such a provision we could see where we are, as he said, and would not be scrambling, year in, year out, to get places. I cannot accept the amendment but I think we can look at it in the context of the broader review of the EPSEN Act.