Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I deliberately decided not to move this motion until today because I thought the Minister for Education and Science would have had the good grace to recognise the mistake he made last February in suppressing special classes in our primary schools. I had assumed that some time in March or April the Minister would have signalled his intention to sort out this problem and genuinely engage with people who knew what they were talking about when it came to the provision of special needs classes within our primary schools. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

The Minister's immediate predecessor was sent packing from Marlborough Street because her doctrine as Minister was based on the principle, "It's my way or no way." She knew best and woe betide anyone who challenged the great oracle of knowledge or wisdom. The Minister's stubborn refusal to see sense and to work out a compromise on this issue reminds me of the attitude of his predecessor. It is not a sign of weakness for the Minister to admit he made a mistake on this issue. However, it is pitiful in the extreme that he has singled out some of the most vulnerable students in our school system. This is the worst decision the Minister has made since coming into office. He displays an extraordinary lack of knowledge and empathy when it comes to understanding the infrastructure that has been provided to assist special needs children in Irish education. What is most frustrating is the Minister's attitude that he knows best.

The people who actually work with children with a mild learning disability, including parents, teachers and principals do not, according to the Minister, know what they are talking about. That is what the Minister said when he took the decision to abolish the 128 special classes in February. Last week, according to the Minister, I was opportunistic in even raising the issue, the INTO was disingenuous, parents were misguided and principals should know better. We are all wrong except the Minister and the senior official who told him to sign on the dotted line and abolish the classes. This has all the traits of

"Madam's" final days in Marlborough Street.

I reject the idiotic, penny pinching and cruel decision to suppress the 128 special classes in 119 primary schools in this country. I agree this decision will affect just over 500 young students, but it will have far-reaching consequences for the already overcrowded mainstream classes in these schools and for children with mild learning disabilities and their families. Does the Minister not think that all parents wants their child to be in a mainstream class? Of course they do. However, there are times when children can do better and, yes, can ultimately integrate when placed in a smaller class in a mainstream school. That is the great flexibility in these special classes. Extra attention and more focused learning can yield better results for a child. For once, can we listen to parents and teachers on this issue and not the faceless bureaucrats who would not know one end of a classroom from another?

This decision came just over half way through the school year. That the Minister gave the affected schools such a short lead-in time for this major change in their school community shows the Minister's callous disregard for education. This is a bad day's work. Tonight and tomorrow my colleagues and I will attempt to overturn and to persuade the majority opinion in this House.

Our motion tonight is straight forward. We believe the classes should be left in place for the next school year, namely from September 2009 to September 2010. During this time, a review should be put in place with a proper dialogue with the education partners and crucially with parents. There are cases where some amalgamation, because of falling numbers, should be adopted. No one with whom I have spoken disagrees with this. To abolish all of the classes, effectively overnight, is a position that no serious educationalist could stand over with justification.

Despite having raised this matter twice on the Adjournment and with the Minister at Question Time, the House has not had an opportunity to seriously reflect on this decision since it was first made in February. Not only do I want my party to hear the views of all parties on the issue, I, in particular, want to hear the voices of Government Deputies. I want to know if any of them have the moral courage to put on the record what they have told me in private, namely, that this is a rotten decision and a direct attack on children.

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