Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 720: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if secretarial services, additional teaching and special needs assistance support, time within the school day and other resources will be provided for schools to enable them to fulfil their responsibilities under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10101/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2005, also known as the EPSEN Act, was passed in July 2004. While many sections of the Act have already commenced, the remaining sections relate mainly to the statutory assessment and education plan process for which the Act provides. These cannot come into effect without the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, having an opportunity to present an implementation report to the Department of Education and Science which it must do before 1 October 2006. On 21 October 2005, the NCSE published a call for submissions in the national media on the implementation of the Act. The closing date for submissions was 13 January 2006.

I understand that the NCSE has recently commissioned Dr. Eileen Winter at Queen's University, Belfast to undertake research on its behalf on the resource requirements needed to implement assessments as identified in the EPSEN Act. Results from the study will inform the production of the implementation report which will detail how the council will implement the Act. The research is due to be completed in June this year.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the EPSEN Act is fully implemented.