Ms Eleanor McSherry:

It is a tough question. As I tell the students, I bring them down because the rest of the course is very positive but I always get stuck with the module that is very dry and very boring and very sad. From an educational point of view, I supervise Master's students in education in the professional Master's in Education at Hibernia, for post-primary and primary. A lot of the students have a huge lack of knowledge in this area but they want to understand. With regard to the training and the resources in the longer term I believe it will cost a lot of money to fix the problems that are there but it is an investment in our future. We had it 21 years ago and we chose not to use it. There have been Bills and strategies that were just left by the wayside. I understand that the State is limited in the financial context, but we would be creating a financial burden at the other end of it if we are turning out teenagers from second level education with serious mental health issues and suicidal ideation. We need to address that issue. This is what we are creating by not being proactive and grabbing the nettle.

Many of the teachers that my son came across were very positive. It was the system that was the problem. The teachers were willing to meet us halfway and willing to work with my child. I do not have a sad story in that respect but for him there were barriers there in the system. The State does not recognise hidden disabilities in our resourcing. It is not recognised. My son had double scoliosis in his back and autism. I brought in all of the documentation yet I was told that he was to go to the third floor for his locker. One year into the school year I found out that there was a lift, but the lift was for children with physical difficulties. What is double scoliosis? I do not understand that.

I also come from a medical background and I understand the monolith of the HSE. The HSE is an intransigent group that will never talk. I was told by my psychologist "There is the Department of Education and there is the HSE, and never the twain shall meet." That is the wrong attitude right there. We have the legislation but we just need to have zero tolerance on what is happening. We need to implement what we have already looked at, and we have looked at it for 21 years. We are not creating something completely different. We have a lot of the skills and we already have a lot of the material here. If we actually had the political will to follow through then change would happen. I see my students who are empowered and who are coming out of their course with attitude change. I have autistic adults in my class who are now becoming advocates for the community. I did that and I am proud of that, but I did that without all of the members. I did that because I wanted to make change and because Dr. Crawford wants to make change. We want the Government to fund this properly, to think about what has already been done and to look at what is there. There is a plethora of information already here. This is what I am asking the committee members to do. I ask the members to be proactive. We already know what needs to be done and we have heard it here, but we have been saying it for 21 years and we are not waiting any longer.