Ms Sin?ad Gibney:

Yes. Dr. Conaty has covered much of what I was going to say, but I will add a couple of points.

Deputy Tully spoke about the invisible disability of autism for adults and children. I wish to emphasise the importance of the collection of data that will help policy and legislation to cater better for the needs of all. This is a matter on which we continue to push the State and call for it to better record, report and disseminate disaggregated data that would allow us to measure the impact of policy and legislation on specific groups and would allow the State to build better services for them.

Regarding inclusive education, I wish to cite an example from last June when the Minister of State with responsibility for special education made an announcement about the development or offering of special educational needs centres. In my opening statement, I referred to the wording in Article 4 of the UNCRPD on inclusive education. Deputy Tully asked whether we were moving closer to that, but the example I cited demonstrates that not only are the services not closer and the right to education is not being realised in a UNCRPD-compliant way, but the more general approach shows a lack of understanding of what inclusive education is. The use of special education systems where students are segregated from the general education system is based on a medical model of disability and, therefore, is not compliant with the UNCRPD. While I appreciate the Deputy's comment that there are ways in which children and parents may choose to seek special education as an alternative to mainstream education, that happens because mainstream education is not where it should be. The announcement I referred to demonstrates a failure in services and a shortfall in the understanding of what inclusive education is and what out commitments under the UNCRPD are.