Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Emergency measures are required, and as I said, parents have lost faith in the PDS model. They are not going to change their view on that unless they see truly constructive changes that are going to help their children. I hope we will see positive change quickly.

On the overall measures regarding independent living, I am aware it is across a number of Departments, so I suppose the Minister of State will have to have oversight over them all. Some Departments think that they have no input into disability and that because we have a dedicated Minister of State it is up to her, but that is not the case. Departments need to be held accountable on that.

There needs to be a move towards inclusive education. That is what is required under the UNCRPD. However, we see more special classes and special schools being established. The officials say the vast majority of students with additional needs attend mainstream school and the resources are provided, but that is not always the case. I am hearing about schools looking for additional SNAs being made jump through hoops to get them. It is quite a difficult process and needs to be made easier. We must also ensure the special classes or schools are in every area because I am seeing students having to travel up to 50 km to get to the nearest special class or school. The two aspects are connected because where students are not getting the supports in the community it is having an impact on their schooling. From what I hear about the social inclusion model it is a good model, but it is still only at pilot stage. It really needs to be assessed. It has a positive impact and could be rolled out more. Are there plans to assess that pilot and roll it out more? It would have a huge impact on children's needs.

It was also said a diagnosis is not required to get access to additional resources. That is true in mainstream, but to get into a special class or school a child needs a diagnosis and because of the backlog in the assessment of needs we are seeing children not getting an appropriate school place. There must be more co-operation between the two Departments on how to overcome that. If there were enough places, schools would not need to request a diagnosis. They could just do a needs assessment and the child who needs the supports could be taken in. Are we any closer to doing that?

On restraint guidelines and the use of restraint in schools, I have heard some harrowing stories about the use of it, and of seclusion. Seclusion should be banned outright. Teachers and principals need guidelines on when and how they should use restraint and it should only be to protect the child or protect others. Are those guidelines finalised? I am aware there was work being done on them, but I think that was in 2019. There are no signs of those four years later.