I move:
That Seanad Éireann
welcomes:
– the substantial increases in resources being made available to special education;
– the Minister's announcement of his intention to establish a National Council for Special Education;
– the work of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in the area of curriculum for special needs;
denounces:
– the system which compels parents to resort to the courts and other legal means to get an appropriate education for those of their children with special needs;
proposes:
– that the Minister for Education recognise the right of all citizens, young and old, with special needs to an appropriate education and that the type of education provision provided by the State is in all cases determined by the needs of the person;
– that legislation be drafted immediately to protect the rights of all those with disabilities;
– that the Minister continue to improve the resources available to meet the needs of all those with special needs;
– that the Minister recognise the rights of parents of those with special needs to be consulted in the determination of the appropriate placement for their children;
– that the Minister establish a comprehensive programme of training for all teachers and other personnel working in special needs education;
– that the Minister re-establish the Special Education Review Committee comprising all the education partners to review special education provision at pre-school, primary, post-primary and third levels;
– that each child's psychological report list the resources required for every child with special needs and that schools be given those resources to meet the child's needs and
– that schools be given an appropriate additional level of staffing to meet the needs of the pupils in those schools where year round programmes are in place.
As will be seen, I have made an attempt to cover all the needs. I am not being mealy mouthed in saying that I hope the Government side of the House will recognise the inclusive way in which we deal with the Minister for Education and Science, as we normally do in welcoming the progress that he has made.
I regret that the drafters of the appalling amendment did not formulate it differently. I tabled the motion is such a way that they did not have to propose deleting all words after "Seanad Éireann". They could have proposed to delete all words after "denounces" or something to that effect. It would make the approach a lot easier.
During the summer, I sought the recall of this House to deal with this type of matter and the issues that followed from the Sinnott case. I certainly want to make some reference to those. The simple point we are addressing is that every citizen has the entitlement, whether they are young or old, to an appropriate education and the type of education provision provided by the State in all cases should be determined by the needs of the person. That is a simple point.
The outcome of the Sinnott case was appalling. The State said that a person is not entitled to receive fundamental education simply because the court said that, from its perspective, Jamie Sinnott was not entitled to primary education. This was never the intention of the people who drafted the Constitution.
I ask the Minister of State to recognise the need for early intervention and planning. The Minister talked about having an open cheque – it is a great thing for a Minister to say he has an open cheque, but I am not simply talking about throwing money at the problem. I would like to adopt a very detailed approach to ensure we meet the needs of those requiring special education.
We need early identification of children with special needs, no matter what age. As soon as they have a problem – whether it be a learning difficulty, autism or a related condition, or a serious mental or emotional difficulty – they must be identified as early as possible. Having done that, we want every child with special needs to have an assessment to determine the precise nature of his or her needs. We want to ensure that the needs are catered for with sufficient resources. Schools must be resourced properly to ensure they can give the children the level of education they require.
My colleague, Senator Norris, who is seconding the motion, will allude to the importance of educational psychologists. I will ignore that for a moment. The Minister of State will accept that it is not just a problem for teachers. I want a broad, global approach to the problem that examines it from different points of view. We have spoken to teachers and asked them what are the main difficulties. There are certain obvious ones we should all be aware of. Another is the lack of quality medical back-up. It is not just a matter for educational psychologists – who are fundamentally important – but speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. All these forms of therapy are required to assist children with special needs. There is a strong view that psychiatric services should be provided in certain cases. It must be understood that there is no one system that is suitable for every single child, even those with the same types of difficulties.
With regard to the row that ensued from the Jamie Sinnott case, we were very worried because we met parents and friends who took the view that what their children needed was a particular regime because they had autism. Some had been taken down to Cork to witness the CABA system which they thought was brilliant. Another group witnessed a system in operation in Kildare and thought it was brilliant. The Department of Education and Science was extolling the virtues of an outreach system, which was the one to adopt.
There are no absolutes in education. Children have multiple needs. It is probably the case that every child could make progress under any one of the systems, but we want to ensure that the system that is most appropriate for a child is available. Also, any system that is used must be properly approved and professionally sound.
It is understandable that parents are at their wits end. Nobody is talking to them about their difficulties. It is no wonder that they criticise the Minister and the Government. It is a matter of communication. I have included in the motion a proposal "that the Minister recognise the rights of parents of those with special needs to be consulted in the determination of the appropriate placement for their children". I am making that proposal as the General Secretary of INTO. We have seen the problems that are created if nobody talks to the parents and explains what they are doing and why a certain system is being approved for their child. When they receive inadequate professional advice, they meet one of the groups of parents – with the best of intentions – that supports one particular kind of regime, and they are told that that regime is the answer to their problems. We need a way of ensuring that any system put in place is the correct one.
We are aware of the progress that has been made, but we do not want the Minister pandering to every group that demands money for a particular system. That is now happening. Six months ago, the Minister was saying that the only system he would sanction with regard to autism was the outreach system. Now he is offering support to almost any group that proposes a system. Every proposal should be properly vetted, examined and approved. That is what we want to do. Any criticism I have made of the Minister is for no other reason than to achieve what I propose in the motion.
The key to the effective implementation of a more inclusive policy is that there be flexibility, provision of resources and availability of appropriate materials, including availability of ICT for children with special needs. I could speak for three hours about the extraordinary added value of information and communications technology for children with special needs. It is almost impossible to imagine what it is like to see a child who has never been able to communicate suddenly being able to do so. I have seen many times where technology can convey speech and sound and interpret movements, pushes, eyelid movements or whatever to allow a child communicate. No matter what way we do it, that is what it is about.
The provision of professional development in special education to all teachers and special needs assistants is also important. Teachers must be kept up-to-date with the latest developments and given the opportunity to improve themselves while ensuring special needs assistants are available. That is another point we raise; there should be special needs assistants in classrooms and schools dealing with children with special needs. It is something of which the Minister approves and which needs to be developed as quickly as possible.
As well as open access to psychological assessment, I welcome another initiative of the Minister's which is not included in the motion. We argued with the Minister for a long time that, because there was not access to the limited educational psychological service, he should allow schools to go to a private psychologist and claim back the costs in an approved manner. I welcome that this has been put in place and that a list of qualified educational psychologists approved by the Department of Education and Science has been put on the Department's website. These can be approached directly by schools to conduct psychological assessments in the schools which can then claim back the cost from the Department. This is an important initiative and I am not in any way begrudging in recognising those issues which have been progressed, but the issue must be taken a little further.
We also need a team approach involving all the professionals – the class, resource teachers, visiting and special class teachers and the multi-disciplinary teams involving professionals from other disciplines. We have also put forward a number of issues which we believe can help the Minister in this process. The establishment of a council through which we can tune in to the expertise of people would be fantastic.
I wish to finish with a story about information and communications technology. About 12 years ago I was camping on a beach in west Kerry. Beside me were a family with a child who had multiple disabilities. He was in a wheelchair and was not able to speak or communicate. He tried to indicate what he had to say by pointing at pictures on a picture board. He was clearly very bright but could not communicate in any way. He became the centre of the caravan site where we were for that week. I always remember that a jackdaw befriended him and spent the week on his shoulder or his picture board, something which made the child hysterical with laughter. We tried to keep in contact with him for a few years after that and he visited us a few times but then we lost contact.
In the middle of the summer I read an article in The Irish Times about people with special needs and how they have evolved. There was our old friend James Brosnan now in his 20s hooked up to all types of machinery in DCU where he was finishing his degree. This is what people need to see about the value of information and communications technology. We can give new life, layers of meaning, impetus, articulation and hope to people who had all types of difficulties before. When asked what he remembered about all the technology, he replied that the day he said “Hello, Mum”, that is, when it came up on the screen, was his favourite day. For these reasons, I appeal to the Minister to support the motion and not press this extraordinary amendment.