Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is probably the hardest committee that I have had to sit on since coming into the role of Senator. Until Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke I was thinking that this conversation was based on white and middle-class students with opportunities. The education system does not have equal access for all students, and that must be our starting point here today. In 2011 and 2012 when I was the education worker in the Irish Traveller Movement I remember the Stokes case in Tipperary where a child could not get access to school because the parents did not go to that school. I remember in 2012 my own nephew did not get access to a local school in Ballyfermot. It was all over the news. Again, it is very tough.

I remember doing an interview after my nomination to become a Senator and the interviewer said to me: "So, you can be anything that you want to be." No, you cannot: you cannot be anything you want to be if you are from the outside. Could anyone in this room answer one question for me today? What is the local community and who are they? Are they white Irish people or are they settlers within the community? Does this include members of the Traveller community? Does it include Black people? Does it include Roma people? Does it include the child in the wheelchair? Even the term "we tend to settle" suggests that we must look at our language here today. Until Deputy Ó Ríordáin made the point on that, which I did not have to make, it appeared that we are okay with it and that we are okay with being here trying to defend it, even if it is only two schools in the whole of Ireland. It is still discriminating against the others. My grandfather never went to secondary school, my father never went to secondary school and none of my brothers and sisters went to secondary school. People think that I am here because I was the Taoiseach's nominee. That is not the reason. I am here because I was allowed to go to my local schools in Ballyfermot and to university. I was lucky because I got equality of opportunity that I had to push through. That is just talking about me as a person. Now I am fearful here and I am thinking about my two girls: my four-month-old baby and my two-year-old girl. I live in Donegal now and now I am wondering how does that school operate. Will Billie be allowed to go to that local school? I have not even checked the admissions policy, how I would access it, or if I need to put her name down now because she is also a member of the Traveller community. What about refugee children? This clause is discriminatory and we cannot sit here and define it and say "well actually it is only one school". No school should have such a policy where it is about the child's grandparent, sisters and brothers.

It should not be about that.

We are speaking here today about boards of management. I do not mean to say to people, "Answer me this question now", but it is something going forward if not the case. Do members of boards of management ever ask themselves the question is there a member of the Traveller community on the board of management? Is there somebody within the local community on the board of management who is different, who represents the other children in the school? That is something we should look at going forward and I will leave that with our witnesses to answer for the future. That is also inclusion. Always look around the room at the people who are not there and invite them in.

I have one other question - sorry I got a little sidetracked - on special education needs, SEN, students and the facilitation of spaces for people with special needs. I cannot even believe we are speaking about equal access to education in 2022, and I support Deputy Ó Ríordáin 150% in his Bill as it goes forward, but we really need to tease this out. This conversation is only starting today. I thank our witnesses so much for coming in to us.