Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, for introducing the motion. I also congratulate my county colleague, the Tánaiste, Deputy Coughlan, on her new position as Minister for Education and Skills. As she is aware, we have 403 special needs assistants in County Donegal.

My colleague, Deputy Stanton, articulated a point about the EPSEN Act which I will not repeat but the Act is the cornerstone of any future system of integrated education in terms of special needs support. That is where the focus has to be. The Tánaiste should take that point on board. Any of the practitioners to whom I have spoken, be they special needs assistants, principals or teachers have indicated that the EPSEN Act is critical to getting a proper structure in place to facilitate special education.

Positives will emerge from the review but negatives will also be evident. The role of special needs assistants has to be reviewed. We should use them as a resource, not as the Government is currently doing in terms of budgetary cuts because there is insufficient money to retain the present complement of special needs assistants. We should also learn from their experiential learning and the valuable work in which they have been involved. Every time I meet SNAs in my clinic, I find they have a new angle, see new opportunities and see where the weaknesses are. The SNAs are critical to any review to be carried out.

Parents of people with disabilities or special educational needs are no different from those with a child that does not need support. They have the same aspirations, ambitions, hopes and dreams regarding their children getting an education. We need to specify that special needs supports are not just about care because we need to differentiate between care and education.

Dr. Robin Eames said at a sermon in Armagh approximately two years ago that education is what is left when everything else is forgotten. We are only passing through and must pass on the educational tradition. I reiterate that education is what is left when everything else is forgotten.

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