Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

This investment will continue to be made. The Government is committed to ensuring that as many children as possible can receive an appropriate education in their own communities, in their local school, alongside their friends, happily interacting with them.

This is not, to quote the Leader of the Opposition in a debate on special needs last year, a "social experiment". Not only is inclusion the desire of the vast majority of parents, it is also the guiding ethos of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

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