Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

While I agree with the Minister for Education and Skills in his support of this Fianna Fáil motion, its wording symbolises everything that is wrong with politics and it shows a complete lack of understanding of education. The motion is self-congratulatory and self-serving and not once does it mention the words "pupil" "child" or "student". It is all very well doling out a litany of figures but we are talking about young people and our children.

The reality is that our education system is not one of the best in the world as we have been hearing. Last year the OECD report on literacy was a wake up call for this country. However, many good things are happening in education and there are many good, positive developments.

I commend the integration of children with special needs into the mainstream system. This has taken a great deal of time, money and commitment from parents and teachers and it cannot be overturned. The concept of labelling children with special needs is all too cosy and glib. We need to understand that children have varying degrees of special and additional needs. Some of our children with special needs are unable to use toilets, some cannot walk and some are unable to communicate. Many have complex and profound difficulties. Many of these children will join mainstream classes with 28 and 29 more children and will be expected to survive. Our schools will be adapting Darwin's policy of survival of the fittest within the classroom in 2011. Even in this economic climate this policy is not acceptable in our classrooms.

Our banks are taking €550 million every week out of this economy and we are going to cut educational resources to children who have mild, moderate and profound special needs. We owe it to the children of this country to provide them with a quality education that meets their educational needs. Our children are not responsible for the legacy of debt that Fianna Fáil and the previous Government passed on to them. Their education should not suffer because of failures of banks and the previous Government which sold out their futures. Why should children with autism and special needs suffer? Why should developers who owe €40 million and more not pay back the money owed to this country? Why should senior managers in banks walk off with massive pensions? One should try to explain that concept to parents of children with special needs.

I am not talking about protecting jobs; I am talking about providing children with special educational needs with a fair chance of getting a good education. It is a travesty that children with special needs are now being denied their educational rights. We must protect the vulnerable in our society. There are children in Dún Laoghaire enrolled since September 2011 in primary schools with Down's syndrome and additional special needs who will have no SNA support and will be in mainstream classes of 28 and 29 children. Parents are extremely worried and cannot sleep at night. As a former school principal who taught many children with special needs, I believe their anxiety is more than justified. What is to happen to these children? Are they to be left at the back of the classroom without the additional resources they deserve or will we take special needs support from one child who has a detailed psychological report and give it to another child with an equally detailed psychological report? Who will make this decision as to which child is more deserving - the parent, the teacher, the principal or King Saul?

I fully understand the problem is that the new Government is constrained as a result of the bailout deal with the IMF and the EU. I understand the Government is unable to overturn the embargo on hiring special needs assistants and resource teachers. We need to streamline our services. Speech, language and occupational therapists should work in the schools to ensure children with special needs can access services daily rather than parents trying to get appointments with HSE clinics on an ad hoc basis.

It is imperative we protect our most vulnerable children. We must not let our children with special educational needs go uncatered for. It would be a shocking indictment on this country if children with special needs were left to fend for themselves in mainstream classrooms without the additional assistance they require and to which they are entitled.

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