Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her attendance and I have been listening with interest. I will raise three or four points with the Minister. In light of what happened during the Covid pandemic, is the Department now planning our education system so we can deal with whatever happens if we have another pandemic or emergency, rather than just waiting for something to happen and then making decisions that might have a negative effect on our children? I am asking about forward planning based on the experiences of the past two years.

The Minister mentioned the needs of the child and the needs of the school. We should only talk about the needs of the child. It is important that we concentrate on the child and what the child needs and that we build everything else around that. What I mean by that is, if training is required by teachers, they should not take days off from their time in the school because that is disruptive. Forward planning involves an effort to deal with all the issues so that children who have disabilities have a calm learning experience.

The school transport situation was, and still continues to be, a disaster in my constituency, and I am sure in other constituencies. It has had a negative effect on children with disabilities. One school in my constituency has four children who still do not have a bus. A bus was allocated and approved last May. The school interviewed and appointed an escort for the bus. The contract was signed and no bus has arrived. This falls to the Department. I raised it with the Tánaiste last week. The information was sent on to the Minister's Department and I ask that be resolved as a matter of urgency. It is not good enough.

Another child who is in a wheelchair has no school transport. Today is 20 September. These things should not be happening. There is no excuse. As a member of this committee, I understand that we all try to put things in place to create an atmosphere where everything is being looked after. Whatever is happening with school transport, and I have my own ideas about that, it has affected children with disabilities and with special educational needs and we need to rectify the problems anywhere they have arisen as a matter of urgency. The onus should not be put on parents to try to bring a child who is in a wheelchair to school, costing them €90 per week. It is not acceptable.

Regarding the design of schools for people with disabilities, are there experts within the building unit who are vetting the design of all new schools to ensure they meet the requirements of universal design?

I also ask the Minister about the EPSEN Act 2004. What provisions for the child will be implemented from that Act? We need to be serious about this. It seems to be done in a haphazard way. Services are not being provided in a uniform way throughout the country and within schools. I know of children who have disabilities who must go to school outside of their area or parishes because facilities are not available in their areas. They have to leave their friends to go to other schools for education. Their siblings want to go to the nearest school but are not with their brother or sister in the national school. We have a lot of things to seriously correct to ensure that we are meeting our commitments. The most annoying thing at the moment is that the school transport system is not working properly. We have been caught napping on that. The decision to offer free transport was well intentioned but has created unintended negative consequences for children and parents, and especially for children with disabilities.