Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in today. We are a very dedicated committee and we are working to try to make a difference. We often hear of committees formed and reports published and all of these things in regard to disability. So often the rhetoric is about support, progress, numbers and funding but then there is the reality of disability services in Ireland and the reports that say things like “wasted lives”. The rhetoric can be quite different from the reality. We hear a lot from all of the different communities on this committee and it is harrowing every week leaving this committee after hearing the reality of what people are going through. The Minister of State knows as well as all of the public representatives that one of the things we get the most from our own constituencies is families who are struggling to get an SNA in their school, space in a special class or even access to a special school. For example, in Cork South-West there is no special school so people are travelling to the city and that could be two or two and a half hours depending on where people are. There are a great many examples of this. Ultimately, for us to be able to effect change, we need Ministers to come in and we do not always get such a positive response, so I thank the Minister of State for coming in to the committee.

I realise the issues around special education are a lot longer in the making than the length of time Deputy Madigan has been Minister of State. In her opening statement, the Minister of State mentioned that people with disabilities in Ireland have an equal right of access to education under the law and that the Department's policy is to ensure that all children with special educational needs can be provided with an education appropriate to their needs. The Minister of State and the Department have to realise that those statements are infuriating to hear for families who literally cannot get that education for their child to which, as the Minister of State said, they have a right and which they desperately need.

There are a few issues that I want to address but I want to start by addressing an issue which the Minister of State is probably aware of, which was in regard to the early intervention class in a primary school in Kilbrittain in Cork South-West. It came as a real surprise to the principal in Kilbrittain, the parents and the students that the NCSE informed them the class was to close. Fair play to the community, which rallied together and, thankfully, that decision has been reversed. At the outset, I want to say that is very good and welcome news and we were all delighted to hear that. What is still of huge concern is that the NCSE informed the SENO there that it was the national policy to wind down early intervention classes and to phase them out in favour of the access and inclusion model. We all know on this committee, and the Minister of State would also know, that this would be an absolute disaster. They are not the same thing. Early intervention classes are crucial for the many people who need them, and what we would like to see is more of them.

I was hoping there was a miscommunication or some kind of misunderstanding. When the NCSE representatives were in the committee last week, they were asked about this by our Chairman, Deputy Moynihan. Instead of saying what we all would have hoped they would say, which was “Absolutely not, no way, we would not dream of phasing out early intervention classes in favour of the access and inclusion model”, their response was quite worrying and very evasive. They said they did not want to comment and that they are waiting on the findings of the access and inclusion model report. Of course, that would lead us to believe that is something the Department is looking at or, in a worst-case scenario, has already sort of decided that it is doing, and that it is prejudging the findings of that report and has started the process of potentially closing down early intervention classes.

Since raising the issue around Kilbrittain, I have heard from other schools which have been in the situation where the NCSE is trying to close their class and, in many cases, they have not managed to keep them open. I know the response we constantly got from the NCSE throughout this was that it is based on need in an area and that it was already agreed with the school that it would be closed. None of that is accurate. In Kilbrittain, for example, they had the staff in place for the following year, they had the accommodation in place and they had students enrolled, so that is testament to the need in the area. It is beyond me how that class could have been told it was closing.

What I really want from the Minister of State is an assurance that there is no plan or that we are not even waiting on a report to see if there is a possibility of phasing out early intervention classes in favour of the access and inclusion model. If there is time, I might have more questions afterwards.