Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I wish to share time with Deputies James Breen, Cowley and Boyle.

I acknowledge the great advances that have taken place in special needs education in recent years such as the establishment of the National Educational Psychological Service with the appointment of 142 psychologists with regional structures. I welcome the appointment of special educational needs officers with responsibility to ensure an appropriate education for the individual child, or at least try to achieve that. However, not every school in the country has access to the services of a NEPS psychologist. The service should be expanded, particularly at primary level where most learning disabilities becomes initially apparent. Such a service plays a key role in the assessment of early indications of special needs education in small children. Just as a stitch in time saves nine, early intervention will preclude the necessity for more costly intervention at a later stage in the child's life and this cannot be emphasised enough. NEPS is critical in assessing and determining access to and deployment of essential expertise and resources to enable children to benefit from educational resources and play a positive and constructive role in society.

Providing for students with special needs in mainstream schools is a most difficult and complex task that impinges on mainstream teachers, many of whom do not possess the specialist qualifications necessary. There is a myth abroad that all children should be included in mainstream education. One school principal used to boast that his school was at the "cutting edge of the inclusion agenda". I wonder whose agenda he meant because I do not believe it was the child's agenda. Inclusion seemed to consist of putting too many children into an unadapted and unsuitable environment with too little support.

To ask a five year old with autism and moderate learning disabilities to join in with a mainstream class is unfair and difficult for the child and could be regarded as cruelty. Inclusion can be highly successful for some children in the right educational environment with the right back-up. Most pupils with special needs can function effectively in a mainstream school, provided the necessary supports exist. They need a little extra support to help them cope with mainstream education, such as further special one-to-one teaching.

The needs of some children are more complex and these children will undoubtedly thrive in a special school where the expertise and support which they require is available. School principals in mainstream schools have extreme difficulty in the allocation of staff for students with special needs. Such staff allocation usually depends on such things as the category of need or the degree of disability, which in turn requires special diagnosis and additional supports in some cases.

At present, teachers in second level schools are required to cater for children with mild disability such as mental handicap and autism. These teachers encounter significant difficulties because they are not trained or equipped with specialist knowledge. The necessary facilities should also be provided for these children. It should not just mean the provision of a ramp in a school but should take into account interior design, lighting and noise levels, for example. Support services are a prerequisite for the integration of special needs students into mainstream schools. The student's specific needs should be the determining factor for the range of support services that are provided and services provided should match the need.

The integration of special needs children into mainstream schools is particularly difficult unless teachers with appropriate qualifications are available. The opportunity to acquire appropriate qualifications should also be made available to staff in mainstream schools. In-service training is very important. Teachers should be properly equipped and trained.

Inclusive education is a basic human right which leads to improved human development and academic outcomes for the child with special needs. Children with special needs deserve nothing less than parity of treatment with their more able-bodied peers.

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