Disabilities Assessments Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18 ============================================================ Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth What engagement has there been with the Department of Education and Youth? There are proposals around the autism protocol. We spoke earlier about the very specific proposal to remove the requirement for an assessment of need in order for a child to find an appropriate school place, whether that is in a special class, in a mainstream setting with supports or in a special school. There has been huge unease among the teaching unions and others in relation to who will make this assessment. It is very important that we bring clarity to this particular case. We all want to see streamlining of the assessment of need process. I have always said I have no particular issue with that, but clarity is needed at this time. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-18