Margaret Conlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the motion. As many of my colleagues have stated, there has been a major investment in the range of supports that have been available to children with special educational needs since the late 1990s. This investment has transformed the ability of schools to make provision for all children. The Government is committed to ensuring that as many children as possible will receive an appropriate education among their peers in their local schools. It is also committed to ensuring that these children will be able to interact on a daily and weekly basis with their peers because this will assist them in developing vital social skills. The supports to which I refer are not merely teaching supports. They include specialist equipment, transport and specially adapted buildings. All of the latter must be put in place for children everywhere.

The crux of the debate is that all pupils with mild general learning disabilities will continue to have access to additional teaching resources in order that their education will continue to be supported. The provision of such supports ensures that children with special educational needs are given the opportunity to reach their highest potential. Is that not what we would wish for all of our children? I recall a time when children with special educational needs were treated as second-class citizens. In many cases they were ignored or shunned by their peers because they were perceived to be different. I would not like to return to that. In the past few years Government supports were put in place to ensure the educational needs of those children were met.

In the majority of our schools children with a mild general learning disability are included in the ordinary classes with their peers and supported by their class teacher. The curriculum is flexible to ensure teachers can cater for the needs of children of different abilities. Schools use their learning support allocation to give children extra help if they need it. Those children benefit from interacting with their peers. All pupils, including those with special educational needs, need to interact with other pupils and in different situations to enable them to cope in a world where that will be the norm.

Teachers are to be commended for their inclusivity and their assistance and dedication in preparing children for life after school. As the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, put it aptly last night, the Opposition is seeking him to play political football with this issue. On the one hand it wants us to manage public expenditure and, on the other hand, it wants us to provide resources to classes that do not have any children. We cannot have it both ways.

I have had close contact with the school in my town of Castleblayney and I have evidence of a willingness on the part of the Department, the SENOs and the teachers to work together in a partnership approach to ensure that the class, rightly so, would be reclassified, and in that case the class would not be suppressed. I welcome that partnership approach. However, that is misrepresented in the local media. I read last week a statement that was made about the Department of Social and Family Affairs providing free lunches yet no education. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is an indication of the way the position was misrepresented.

I take the opportunity to reassure parents that teachers and schools are working every day to deliver an excellent education to all children. The teachers should be thanked time and again for the tangible difference they make in the lives of all our children to prepare them to for life outside school.

In the past ten years the Government has driven a transformation in education policy for children with special educational needs. Almost 12 years ago, when Fine Gael and Labour left power, most parents of children with significant or special education or care needs had no choice but to send them to a special school. This Government will continue to represent, be aware of and deliver for pupils with special educational needs. I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure those pupils will continue to be a priority in terms of educational investment enabling them to achieve their true potential.

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