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

So much in what Ms Byrne said was true. Children have a right to be educated in a local school with their siblings and those from their communities. It should not be about luck. That should be a given for all students. I commend Ms Byrne on her determination to go to college rather than just a day service. Many are not offered an opportunity to attend further training or further learning. We must reassess that. We cannot just expect children to come out of school at 18 years of age and then stay in a day service for 30 or 40 years. It is not fair.

One of Ms Byrne’s main points was on how she was lucky but it should not be about luck. She is right. It should be a given that every young person and child has the opportunity to be educated in his or her local community with his or her siblings and people from the community. I thank her. She has given us a great insight.

Ms McDonagh touched on the issue of how many parents did not have enough trust in the education system to send their children to their local schools. This problem is probably twofold. Recently, a parent told me that she felt her son had regressed in a local autism class. When I asked her why she felt that was, she said it was because the teacher was not trained. There is a large gap. Special classes and autism classes are being opened all over the country, but the staff in them are not trained and can actually cause regression and do damage. My niece’s daughter was attending an autism class. Next thing, she did not want to go to school. My niece was on the verge of going down the home-schooling route, but when her daughter went into fifth class the following September, there was a different teacher and she was a different child. There has to be greater oversight and training of all our teachers, be they in primary or secondary school, to ensure that they are capable of identifying and addressing the needs of all students in the classroom.

Parents are choosing to send children to special schools because they are not getting support in their local primary and secondary schools. The NCSE is discussing putting therapists into schools. What are the witnesses’ opinions on that? Our CDNTs are not functioning, so children are not getting the supports in the community they should be, and when they go to school, their teachers and SNAs are not equipped to deal with their needs either. They need physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and so forth. The social inclusion model, SIM, seems to have worked well, although I would love to see a proper appraisal of it. What are the witnesses’ opinions on it being rolled out to all schools? Is that an option?

Some children travel up to an hour or two to get to an appropriate school. This has a devastating effect on them and is not fair. In terms of the child, family life and money, what is the cost of that? Have the witnesses examined the cost of changing our education system so that it is inclusive and every child can attend a local school instead of a special school setting? Supports will have to be put into the local school and structured around the child to ensure that the child is getting a full education.

Regarding very complex care, for example, where children require nursing care, do the witnesses envisage the State providing it in mainstream schools? Should it be provided there?