Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

This may be an aside, but I met school secretaries yesterday who must be paid out of the capitation grant received by the schools. The actual support structures in the schools are inadequate. They do not have sufficient access to educational psychologists and do not have the reduced class sizes and all the other measures recommended by the task force.

I urge the Minister to refrain from sitting back and simply saying that since she has set up the support measures in the schools and is amending the legislation today, she does not need to do more. There are many other recommendations. The task force also has a timeframe. At the end of each series of recommendations, it states what should be done in 2006, 2007 and so on. Its timeframe is across all the recommendations so it is not a matter of recommending that the legislation be introduced and the support teams set up and one can wait two more years to take the other measures. Its approach is about starting everything more or less at the same time so that we can address the various aspects of it. This is my concern.

Having said all that, I welcome the legislation. It is welcomed by those who work in schools and the parents of the majority of young people, who want their children to have the opportunity to study in a peaceful and proactive environment. There are some concerns with regard to the legislation and we will also table amendments in the future. I draw the Minister's attention to something outlined by the TUI in its article that there is no provision in the amendments that pupils should not be reinstated solely on technicalities or procedural grounds. I ask the Minister to examine this aspect. It is probably true that young people expelled or suspended under section 29 can sometimes use a technicality. I believe this point was alluded to by Deputy Enright and we must be aware of it. The TUI may make recommendations to the Minister in this regard.

Another aspect of section 29 relates to enrolments. I welcome the section which basically states that schools cannot deny rights under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. In other words, the right of people with special educational needs to a place in school will be maintained and this legislation will not undermine their rights, which is very important. However, their right to get into a school in the first place needs to be protected. While provisions relating to the refusal to enrol are included in section 29, schools are managing to cherry pick students and make it difficult for parents to enrol their children with special needs, which was acknowledged by the Minister. Deputy Enright also referred to this fact. Sometimes, they will not give parents a letter stating they have refused to enrol the child so that parents cannot take an appeal under section 29.

We need to strengthen the rights of people with learning difficulties in this area and the rights of schools who have an open policy. Up to 10% and more of the student body of some schools is composed of students with special learning needs and the schools cater magnificently for them. It is ironic, but these schools often end up having section 29 appeals taken against them because more parents seek to enrol their children in these open and welcoming schools, whereas other schools do not have section 29 appeals taken against them because they let it be known that they do not want to cater for young people with special learning difficulties.

The Minister needs to take action in respect of enrolment policies. I have previously stated that, under section 33 of the Act, she can introduce regulations. I do not know whether she has thought about whether this might be necessary in view of the fact that there seems to be a growing divide, particularly in Dublin where certain schools want young people who do not have learning or social difficulties and leave other schools to be more inclusive and holistic.

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