Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Having worked with a disability organisation, I put myself forward for the working group on personalised budgets. I am still waiting to hear about a date for a meeting.

The ordinary rights of citizens are not realised if one has a disability. I was at a meeting in Cork on Monday about a massive shortfall in access to education in spite of legislation which was introduced. Deputy Micheál Martin raised it yesterday in the Dáil. In Cork, a child with autism moving into second level education has a poor chance of getting the place he or she needs. There are 81 classes for children with autism in primary schools, but only 41 at secondary school level in Cork. Children with autism experience significant anxieties with transitions and this significant change from primary to secondary creates problems not just in Cork, but throughout the country.

That is why the UN convention needs to be signed in order that pressure can be put on all the agencies, including the schools which choose not to set up autism classes because it is within their rights not to do so. I would like if the Minister of State would put on his lobbying hat. There is an Education (Admission to Schools) Bill coming through which could strengthen the powers of the National Council for Special Education to instruct schools to offer places with proper settings to children with educational special needs. A place without a decent setting for a child with autism is not a place at all. Sinn Féin, the AAA-PBP and the Labour Party supported an amendment to the Bill which would strengthen the powers of the National Council for Special Education to ensure every child with autism could get a place in a class and take that dreadful anxiety out of the situation. A child with autism has the right to education, a job, a house and a decent life. We need the UN convention to be ratified.

I am concerned at the snail’s pace in the progress in dealing with congregated settings. There are people living in institutions throughout the country. I was responsible for some. They are not the right setting for people. People are not exercising ordinary rights. People have to go to bed at 6 o’clock and 7 o’clock because of shift patterns. That is not good enough and we should not accept it. The UN convention is really important for realising those rights for people living in institutions, children with autism and a whole range of others. I understand there have been some blockages but there is a huge urgency on this for people throughout the country.