Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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242. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to carry out a full costing of the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14993/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that, Section 2 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004, providing for the inclusive education of children with special educational needs and the sections of the Act which placed the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) on a statutory footing, were commenced in 2005.

The remaining sections of the EPSEN Act have yet to be commenced. Legal advice indicates that the EPSEN Act, as it is currently constituted, may not be implemented on a phased, or age cohort, basis.

The NCSE has published a Plan for the Implementation of the EPSEN Act. This report, which was published in 2006, made recommendations which suggested that additional investment over a period of years of up to €235m per annum, across the education and health sectors, would be required to fully implement the EPSEN Act. The estimate of costs did not desegregate costs which related only to the introduction of Individual Education Plans.

My Department's opinion is that the level of investment required could be significantly greater than that envisaged in the NCSE report. However, a total estimate of this amount has not been quantified.

Revised estimates of the amount of additional expenditure required to fully implement remaining sectors of the EPSEN Act have not recently been conducted. The level of additional expenditure required would have to take into account annual demographic growth and service developments in the area of special educational needs, pricing adjustments and salary cost differentials on an ongoing basis.

Estimates would also have to be made as to the number of pupils who might qualify for the statutory service provisions envisaged by the EPSEN Act.

While awaiting the full implementation of the EPSEN Act, the NCSE has published a number of policy advice papers which make recommendations aimed at developing a better or more effective alternative to the current resource allocation model, and which aims to move the system towards ultimate implementation of the EPSEN Act.

It is therefore intended to bring into effect many of the good ideas contained in the EPSEN Act, on a non-statutory basis initially, through policy developments across a range of areas, in conjunction with NCSE policy advice. In such circumstances, I do not propose, at present, to carry out a full recosting exercise for the implementation of the statutory provision of the EPSEN Act.

Under the Programme for a Partnership Government I have also committed to consulting with stakeholders to see how best to progress sections of the EPSEN Act that were introduced on a non-statutory basis.