In accordance with the order of the House of last week, we will have two further sessions of Leaders' Questions to compensate for the fact that we did not have Leaders' Questions yesterday. I will proceed to the fifth question.

The EPSEN Act was passed in 2005. It deals with special education and was meant to confer statutory rights on children with special needs in terms of assessment and the provision of individual education plans. What is quite extraordinary is that 11 years on key sections of the legislation have never been commenced. It is those sections which confer on children the right to an assessment and to have an individual education plan. The sections that have been commenced relate fundamentally to policy, the establishment of the special education review council and other structural elements of the Act. However, the parts of it that give rights to children have never been commenced.

When one talks to parents of children with special needs, it is very disturbing to learn about the obstacles they have to face in seeking basic assessments for their young children in order that the education provisions made can properly respond to their complex needs. In terms of psychological services, for example, most principals will say they have to play God every year and that, in terms of the availability of the National Educational Psychological Service, they have to select from a large number of children who can avail of the two psychological assessments provided in the school. On physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, there is appalling provision for children with special needs. The current model, situated in the HSE, is simply not working. Progressing disability services is a myth.

It will never happen. It is the wrong model because it takes children out of the classroom. What is required is a multidisciplinary response in the classroom or education setting whereby the physiotherapist, occupational therapist and speech and language therapist work with the teaching professionals and an adequately resourced psychological service to attend to the needs of children with special needs. In yesterday's budget, the provision in that area was unclear but it is critical to the proper development of the child that he or she has access to a proper, timely assessment of his or her particular condition or special need.

It speaks volumes that no one within the system has ever taken it upon himself or herself to say the sections of the EPSEN Act that are key to the rights of the child have never been commenced. The Act was passed 11 years ago in the midst of considerable debate, which I remember well. The failure to commence the sections probably goes to the heart of why advocacy for children with special needs is still missing in our education system. Could the Taoiseach indicate why the relevant sections of the Act have not been commenced?

This has dragged on for a very long time. The Stack report, which was produced by a former inspector in the Department of Education and Skills, has set out a new pilot scheme for the early assessment of children in a way that is radically different from what has applied up to now. This budget has increased the number of resource teachers by 46% and special needs assistants by 22%. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, is working on a new model to strengthen the function and capacity of resource teaching in schools, which will deal with this. The changes over time will allow for the fulfilment of the remaining sections of the EPSEN Act that remain to be dealt with.

There was an increase in funding for the disability sector yesterday. Obviously, the moving of the speech and language therapists into schools will be of enormous help in terms of the multidisciplinary approach the Deputy rightly refers to. The Minister is considering that but would like to see the impact of a number of pilot schemes first.

Not everything is included in this budget but there is a significant increase in the number of resource teachers and special needs assistants and a strengthening of the functions and capabilities of resource teachers under the model. A number of pilot schemes on the moving of multidisciplinary skills into schools are being examined. The Minister is anxious to see how that might work in practice.

I have long been campaigning for therapists to go into the school classroom. That was the case with special schools until Progressing Disability came along. It is threatening to dilute the presence of such therapists in the special schools. The arrangement should be extended into mainstream schools across the country.

My key question for the Taoiseach is based on the fact that the sections of the EPSEN Act that have been commenced relate to general matters concerning the establishment of the special education review council. Those sections that have not been commenced are those that relate to educational assessment for all children with special educational needs, the consequent development of a statutory individual education plan, the delivery of detailed education services on foot of this plan, the designation of schools mandated to take in children with special needs, and the duty of the Minister for Health and Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to make resources available. Fundamentally, I accept that the special education review council is doing what it can in the absence of this legislation and progressing with pilot schemes and so on, but the reality is that thousands of children do not have the key access they require, particularly to early assessment. This is so much so that the Stack group is now progressing with an idea whereby there should be no assessment, just provision. I understand that people want-----

The Deputy should conclude.

I accept that point, but this only arises because the Act is not in place and does not provide for the assessment of children at the earliest stage possible.

Does the Taoiseach not accept that, at the very minimum, someone in the Departments responsible for education and health and the Taoiseach's Department should have reviewed all this and identified the obstacles and policy response required to confer basic rights on children with regard to the assessment of their conditions? We are going nowhere if we do not have the assessment. I refer to how the system can respond properly to a child's needs.

We are significantly over time.

I did actually address this. I will send the Deputy a copy of the Stack report if he has not read it. It sets out a whole new model for the early assessment-----

I met those concerned and know all about them. I am talking about the Act.

That is all right. Yesterday's budget provided 1,000 extra staff to deal with special needs children in schools. This will be of major benefit to parents and particularly the children.