Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

For almost a month the country has been rightly convulsed following the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.

I have never at any time in my life heard so many guarantees that from now on we will treat all of the children of our nation equally, that we will respect them and that what happened will never happen again, and rightly so. However, those words ring very hollow when one considers what will happen in this country from September next.

Since January 2007 the Department of Education and Science has laid down four criteria in regard to eligibility for the home education grant. Home education grants are given to the parents of preschool children who are in need of education to ready them for primary school, usually children two and a half to five years old, most of whom are autistic and must be taught how to learn. They are children who, for instance, need to be taught how to manage their behaviour, communication skills — most of them are non-verbal — self management and social and play skills, all of which we, who do not have such difficulties, take for granted. They must be taught toileting and hygiene skills, cognitive and sensory skills, all of which must be learned to ensure when they go to primary school they are capable of integrating into mainstream education.

Under the new criteria for home tuition grants, which will change from September next, parents will have to seek a qualified teacher to teach their child. A qualified teacher in this respect means a primary or secondary teacher, people with H.dip qualifications who do not have the skill sets to teach these children. If they do, why then do primary schools continue to seek the assistance of organisations dealing with children with autism? Primary school teachers do not have the required skill sets to teach these children. We have been through all of this before. That argument was made a long time ago when the new criteria was introduced and is being made again now. I believe that the reason for this change is the Minister's desire to have more qualified teachers employed in this area. I ask the unions not to co-operate with this. These teachers are not the people we need to prepare these children for mainstream primary education.

If the words we have been hearing for the past month in regard to the children of our nation are to mean anything, surely the parents who have fought long and hard for these limited rights for their children should continue to receive them.

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