8.—(1) The Council upon being informed by F19[the Health Service Executive] or the principal of a relevant school that a child has special educational needs, shall, unless an education plan has been or is being prepared under section 3 in respect of the child, direct the relevant special educational needs organiser to cause to be prepared a plan for the appropriate education of the child (in this Act also referred to as an “education plan”).

(2) The preparation of an education plan under this section shall commence not later than 1 month from the direction concerned referred to in subsection (1) being given and be completed without undue delay and, in any case, not later than 2 months from its being commenced.

(3) The relevant special educational needs organiser shall convene a group of persons (in this Act referred to as a “team”) to provide advice to him or her in relation to the preparation of the plan concerned and a team may provide such advice to that organiser accordingly.

(4) A team shall include, subject to subsection (6), the parents of the child concerned and the principal of the relevant school, or a teacher of that school nominated by that principal to be a member of the team, and may include one or more of the following—

(a) the child where this is considered appropriate by the special educational needs organiser having regard to the age of the child and the nature and extent of the child's special educational needs.

(b) a psychologist employed by the Minister or the National Educational Psychological Service, or a person determined by the special educational needs organiser to have sufficient expertise in psychology and nominated, as the case may be, by the Minister, the said service or the organiser to be a member of the team, and

(c) any other person whom the parents or the special educational needs organiser consider appropriate and nominate to be a member of the team, being a person who holds a qualification granted or awarded by a professional body, which qualification—

(i) relates to the education of children with special educational needs, and

(ii) stands recognised for the purposes of this paragraph by the Council.

(5) With respect to the preparation of an education plan under this section the team shall have regard to any needs, other than educational needs, of the child concerned which are specified in the assessment under section 4 and shall ensure that the education plan is consistent with the provision for such needs.

(6) A parent of the child concerned shall not be a member of a team unless he or she consents to being such a member.

(7) In this section—

“relevant school” means the school which the child concerned is attending or which it is proposed the child will attend;

“relevant special educational needs organiser” means the special educational needs organiser with responsibility for the area in which the relevant school is situated or, as the case may be, for the particular category of school designated pursuant to section 26(5) into which the relevant school falls.