There are welcome proposals in the programme for Government on the very urgent need to improve services and supports for children with additional needs. Every day I talk to parents who are utterly frustrated and very concerned about the lack of timely interventions through appropriate therapies. We need a common application system and enough special classes to enable children attend schools in their local community. Proposals are not enough. We need urgency attached to a comprehensive implementation plan for such measures. We need a national therapy service in education with therapists providing therapies in schools. This service can be built quickly on the newly sanctioned educational therapy support service of the NCSE. A successful and early roll-out of a national therapy service for schools is essential and delays will no longer be acceptable. Those children have waited far too long for basic and essential supports.

I agree on increased resources toward services for children with additional needs. In respect of school there should be no excuse for an absence of any place for any child. It is a constitutional right and there is legislation that places an obligation on schools and on the State. We may need to strengthen that legislation if it is not being enacted. There has been a reluctance to enact it in some cases. We had a situation before where we had a clear pupil-teacher ratio for children with special needs and it was adhered to. That practice has waned in some areas in recent times, especially at post-primary level. That is not acceptable and I will be talking to a number of Ministers on this issue. The programme for Government 100% provides for the establishment of a national therapy service in education, which will be progressed.