Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Buckley for her presentation, which I found very interesting along with her interaction with the members, Ms Griffin and Ms Grant. If I have taken her up correctly, Professor Buckley appears to be saying that a properly organised and resourced generalised system is better than one that is overly individualised. What we had before the general allocation was that every child had to get an individual assessment. It was mayhem and there were years of delays. It was crazy. The whole point of the general allocation model was to move away from that and have a system where the resources were there before the child. Of course, we must review it and look at the fact that it has been there for a few years and whether it needs to be changed and tweaked. That was always the intention of the past Government when it was brought in.

I am interested in how Professor Buckley thinks our system should be modified. Professor Buckley is aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has proposed that we move to a different general allocation model. It has not been specific about what that would involve but it has indicated that it would be a more generalised system with more leadership devolved to schools and more general resources across the system and that we would end up with less children being classified on the basis of low incidence. If this is done correctly, it will, one hopes, head in the direction of what Professor Buckley has indicated. If it is not done correctly, there may be more groups as unhappy as Down Syndrome Ireland. Due to the fact that it is unhappy with the current system, it sees some comfort in being classified as low incidence because it avoids the disadvantages its sees as being associated with the current general allocation model. Instead of fixing the model for everyone, we are trying to find ways of addressing the groups that lose out the most from it. How does Professor Buckley feel it should be tweaked? Apart from the size of the school, the Irish model takes into account some other factors which are quite crude. How would Professor Buckley modify it so that it would be a more sophisticated system?

In respect of the special education circular, Professor Buckley's presentation draws attention to the disabilities listed as low incidence and the fact that, as has been pointed out by members, children with some disabilities get a certain number of hours while children with Down's syndrome do not. In terms of teasing out the evidence base for that, and I understand where Down Syndrome Ireland is coming from in terms of showing that Down's syndrome is a low incidence disability, does Professor Buckley have information about the percentages of children with other disabilities that are classified as low incidence? That is not given in this chart and circular.