Ms Rita Walsh:

My own lived experience concerns my 32-year-old daughter. When she started primary school in 1995 there was no such thing as a special needs assistant, SNA, or a resource teacher. She started with a junior infants teacher the same as everybody else and was in first class before an SNA came for two hours a day. She was in second class before a resource teacher came, who was divided between five schools in a rural area. It can be imagined how well that was divided out. By the time she left primary school, she had the resources that made her life in school very good. When we tried to move to secondary school, there was again a major fight and battle, and it was wearing and grinding to get there, but we did. We got the resources and she went to secondary school.

Parents of my generation with loved ones with Down's syndrome are very aware of the progress that has been made in education. Children who have Down's syndrome or disabilities now go to school. I have seen the richness that has brought to the lives of many people. However, for us, when our people turned 18, it fell off a cliff. We now see that as the new border and boundary. We are excited about our programmes in Kildare because we believe we have to set a thing up in an environment for success and not failure. We have to create the bespoke scaffolding around people that makes it succeed. We know the people in our horticulture programme. We know each one is different from the other, in addition to the variety and spectrum of strengths and challenges they have. We have people in our horticulture programme who could sell snow to Eskimos along with people who do not speak at all. We have to create the interaction that will allow those people to give of their best and be recognised for their social role in society.

This is about education but I see education as everything we learn that we did not know the day before. It is not something marked by a leaving certificate or junior certificate. I know all those things must be part of what we do, but I see education as everything that makes people richer than they are. For our people, the big challenge then becomes how to hold on to what they have learned. Our people have done very well in primary and secondary school. They have worked very hard, as have their parents and the school communities, to get them to a certain level of literacy, numeracy and skills. If they do not have real and inclusive opportunities to use those skills, whether it is in further education, bespoke further education or supported further education, or supported and bespoke employment opportunities, they will lose those skills. The loss of those skills means loss of independence, which will affect their mental health, and a significant amount of potential will be lost to society.

I will give an example. Yesterday, the group I work with at the polytunnel in Donadea, adopted the green kilometre along our walk. In any village or town in Ireland on any weekend, people in high-vis vests will be seen out collecting litter and someone will say to himself or herself, "Aren't they great people?", because they enhance our surroundings, our environment and our lives. They make a lovely contribution to the quality of our lives. Our people were out yesterday in their high-vis vests, with their pickers or whatever, and that is what people would have said. They would not have said these are people with Down's syndrome, but they are great people because they are making a valued social contribution. That is education too. We have made major progress in primary and secondary schools. We are now at a new frontier and we must push on that barrier again.