Parent across the country are desperately trying to secure appropriate school places for their children. There is still huge uncertainty around the level and scale of unmet need. Transparency is really important. The Department of Education and Youth, working with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, should be able to give us that data. I am suggesting that it publish that on a monthly basis, like the Department of housing publishes the homeless figures. That is to show transparency. We want to work constructively with the Government and the NCSE to quell the amount of panic that is going on. If the NCSE and the Department were able to publish on a monthly basis the number of students who were yet to get an appropriate school place, we would be very clear on what that would be. The data is there. It is just not being published. It happens in the Department of housing with the homeless figures. This is a way of showing that transparency and quelling that panic that is going on.

I think what we need is all of our officials in the Department working flat out to make sure that every child gets an appropriate place next September. That is where we need staff deployed. We do not need new units to start producing data. There is a balance to be struck in terms of the deployment of public servants. We are increasing the number of public servants on an annual basis. The increase has been significant over the last number of years. To be fair to the Minister, Hildegarde Naughton, and the Minister of State, Michael Moynihan, their focus has been very much on securing additional resources and working with the National Council for Special Education to get the places. They opened the portal early in October. That has resulted in far more significant numbers. I think about 6,000 children in existing mainstream classes have now been identified as needing additionality in terms of supports. That is happening. The Department is flat out on that with the NCSE.