Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am of the view that all schools should have an obligation to provide for special education and should not be in a position to refuse. That competes with other rights in terms of autonomy of the school but where the State is funding schools to the degree that it does, the broad principle of the State is inclusivity. When I was Minister for Education and Science from 1997 to 2000, we had very little difficulty in transforming the special education system in terms of primary schools coming forward to create special classes and take children with special needs into mainstream schools and employing SNAs. To be fair, if that obligation is on schools, we must then provide the resources and we are doing that. The obligation should be there and legislation has changed and is changing to reflect that but resources must follow that in terms of the broad spectrum of needs but also different types. There is no one size fits all. It is at post-primary level that it has become particularly challenging with autism. We have established new schools in the past two years. About three to four special schools have been established. That is where I see that. There are other issues on the health side that are separate but must be dealt with in terms of the progressing disability services, PDS, programme and its limitations so far.

Regarding refuge places, as part of its overall strategy, the Government's objective is to provide that everyone who needs a refuge space would get one. I think we are up to 141. I am still working with the Department of Justice regarding the timeline for providing the places. When we get the agency set up, I believe it should drive the provision of refuge spaces with the proper optimum model. Historically, the model has been localised and bottom-up, which is okay to a degree, but we do need standards and high quality, which we have achieved in many other areas of public life. We have improved schools and healthcare settings, including primary care settings, dramatically so there is no reason why we cannot have a high-quality spec for refuge spaces and centres for families. The strategy commits to doubling the figure to over 280 over the next five years. I would like to see as much as we can do. Some of that is back loaded. I would like to see whether there are mechanisms we can work with local authorities to bring some of that forward faster.