Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 121:

In page 15, lines 29 and 30, after "concerned" to insert "has received the services required as contained in the education plan and".

Our amendment is designed to expand the scope of the review of the progress of the child's education plan. The intention is to take into account whether the child has received the services required, as specified in the education plan. Section 9(2)(e) states that the education plan should include: "the special education and related support services to be provided to the child to enable the child to benefit from the education and to participate in the life of the school". Any review of such a plan should take into account whether those resources are supplied and, if they are not, a reason for this should be given. There is no point in having an education plan that does not provide the recommended services and resources. The failure of any element of an education plan may be as much related to a lack of resources and services as anything else. I urge the Minister to accept the amendment so that any review of the operation of the education plan can be as thorough as possible and that where resources have not been made available for the provision of services, this can be identified and, I hope, the situation can be rectified.

The Minister made the point on Committee Stage that we could have a case where resources and services are provided but the goals are not met. I fully accept that, but I do not see any reason the review cannot state this as well. It is not an attempt to get at the Minister for not providing the resources, nor is it an attempt to suggest that the provision of resources may not be the only problem. The aim of the amendment is to ensure that all aspects of the plan are reported on and examined when a review is carried out to try to pinpoint any problems that may have occurred. A review should examine if the recommended services were provided for the implementation of the plan.

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