Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that the witnesses are here today. I thank the other members of the committee for facilitating the invitation. I think it was in May that I visited Ms O'Neill's school for the first time. When I left on my bike I was kind of floating through Crumlin to come back here, thinking what a wonderful and safe place I had just visited. I saw the students there playing in the yard and as someone described earlier, it did not matter if the ball went in or not. Everyone was delighted and cheering when the ball went in and they were all helping when the ball went out. It was a really caring school, with a lot of love. For me, education has to look at the child's needs. Love and care always need to be there. I see now there is a switch to it being more about numbers and ticking boxes and getting as many people in as possible. I know we have children with incredible needs who need to be minded, cared for and loved. However, my fear is that if we put everybody with such complex and different needs in, we will not be able to mind anybody. I do not want to use the word "diluted" but in our education system, I feel that staff in schools will be so stretched that they will not know where to go.

When I heard earlier that there were plans to get rid of the junior cycle, I thought that it is not the be-all and end-all. We know that. The other skills in Ms O'Neill's schools are maybe the skills that mainstream schools do not have time to teach, because they are teaching to the curriculum. The witnesses' schools also have the capacity to do the junior cycle at the level the student is at. Is that not what the parent was saying? Anyone here who is a parent needs to know that this could be any of our children or grandchildren. We need to have an education system that facilitates every single child. It is their right. We are not making this stuff up; it is written down. As I said in the Dáil the other day, Ireland has to give a right to children and they have rights to an education that is appropriate for them. It should be culturally sensitive and flexible according to their needs. If we are seeing that more young people are being diagnosed, then we need to be flexible on that. However, we do not need to then put everybody in the same category and - I will use the word - dilute the provision, the care and the love. This is not a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul; pitting one set of pupils against another is not right. It puts strain.

When I worked in education disadvantage I saw therapists or NEPS psychologists telling the teachers, SNAs and other care team staff how to support the child from an occupational therapy perspective or an educational psychology perspective. We do not need the role of the teacher or SNA being broadened to include therapies. They have a defined role and that needs to be kept. The therapists coming in need to do the therapeutic work. Everybody needs to be able to do what they are qualified and trained to do and what they love doing, to the best of their abilities.

I am not leaving Ms O'Neill any time to speak but I am so passionate about this. I am so happy to be pushing this. I do not know how many times I have mentioned it now. It is probably even more times than I have mentioned the school completion programme, which is my pet topic. I commend all the witnesses, particularly those who came down from Donegal. It is a very long way to come. I wish the school staff, parents and students all the best. We will keep fighting this. We will keep saying that we cannot have this redesignation.