Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister will be familiar with the special units in most large primary schools, at both junior and senior level, and which are extending into secondary schools. I find the Minister's statement quite confusing because at primary level in a large primary school we are talking about two special units of six pupils in each class. By and large, there is a significant over-subscription by parents of qualifying children for those classes. I am not sure what the Minister is trying to achieve here. This is a process which has been ongoing. I am talking about very large schools that in total comprise 750,000 pupils at primary level and the number would be a little more at secondary level. Again, I am referring to the experience in Dublin West which may not be the experience in the rest of the country where schools may be much smaller. What is the Minister trying to tell us? We are trying to mainstream children with disabilities into the special units where that is appropriate given whatever level of support they may need, but what the Minister has said does not sound great. What is it that he is proposing to do? Is Tusla going to make the decision or is the school-----