I wish to share time with a number of my colleagues. Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom tréaslú le mo chomhghleacaí agus mo chara, Deputy Hanafin, as ucht í a ainmniú mar Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíochta. Tá fhios agam go mbeidh sí go heifeachtúil sa phost sin agus go n-éireoidh sí go geal. Tá súil agam go n-éireoidh sí níos airde ar an dreáimire pholaitiúil i gceann cúpla bliain eile, ar aon chuma. I am delighted to congratulate the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, on her appointment and wish her every success in the position.
As regards the motion tabled by the Opposition, it is important that we avoid playing political football with this, if at all possible. I began my teaching career in the mid to late 1960s. In those days we were governed by a rather dog-eared copy of a book called "The Rules for National Schools" and a pile of circulars which were kept under lock and key in much the same way as the Book of Kells is in Trinity College.
In those days children with special needs were referred to in a much more derogatory way. They were called stupid. That was being charitable, some of the time. Those children were relegated to classes, taught in rooms at the rear of assembly halls, where there was no natural light. Those conditions pertained until the mid-1970s. I recall when my own school was sanctioned for a special class. A special class was allocated a space that was meant to be used as a small kitchen for the hall in our school. Members will not believe the trouble we had to go through to get a small grant from the Department of Education at the time to try to convert that small kitchenette area for a group of approximately 12 children.
No party can claim it crowned itself in glory in dealing with children with special needs, until relatively recent times. It was not until 1997 when Fianna Fáil was returned to Government that a determined effort was made to codify any form of legislation in the area of education. I recall in October 1998 when, just as the late Deputy Donough O'Malley did with second level education, the then Minister, Deputy Martin announced to the House that all primary school children with disabilities would have an automatic entitlement to a response to their needs. That was a significant shift at the time. It was out of that announcement that the provision which has developed evolved. I am not going to recite what has happened in the area of increased allocation of resources. The Minister did that last night, as did the Minister of State. It is on record and Members all know what it is.
Much has been done and Deputy Stanton and others have rightly urged the Government to do more. I am committed, as is everyone in this House, to make the best possible provision for that area of special need. The bedding down of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 will bring about quite a shift in the area of provision for special needs children, and that is as it should be. Every one of us can recite cases that we need to draw the Minister's attention as regards more enlightened provision for children with special needs. Why, for example, does the mother of a child have to go on Marian Finucane's programme to have her educational needs addressed? Why does another mother have to get on "Morning Ireland", on "Questions and Answers" and again on "Morning Ireland" to get a psychological assessment done?
We know the national educational psychological service and the National Educational Welfare Board exist and are all bedding down. Hopefully, in a short time there will be significant improvements.
I take issue, however, with a number of aspects to the Opposition's motion. I cannot understand how Fine Gael becomes associated with a motion suggesting that responsibilities be devolved from the Minister to the school principal with regard to the making of decisions. I have been involved in education for a long time and that smacks of the "big brother" attitude of control centralisation. No member of the Labour Party is here to listen to this, but it really smacks of "big brother" taking control. We have moved away from that and we should stay far away from the Minister and Department of Education and Science becoming involved in the day to day running of schools. It took us a long time to try to shake that off. Many of us here lived in fear of inspectors coming in and deciding what was good for our schools. That can no longer happen, so I very much condemn this particular aspect of the motion.
I must also draw attention to the fact the Opposition was in power at a time when its finance spokesmen continually told us they set the Celtic tiger roaring. They tell us that when they left office in 1997, there was a budget surplus. Yet they made no provision for people with disabilities. Neither the 1995 nor the 1996 budget made such a provision. The 1996 budget was castigated by the Mental Health Association of Ireland which said families of people on waiting lists for mental handicap services had been let down by it. In 1997 the rainbow coalition froze direct funding to schools and proposed cutting teaching numbers. It also cut back money for innovation and building projects in the Department by €20 million. I do not believe this side of the House needs to be lectured by the Opposition. I recommend the Minister's amendment.