Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I thank all the members of the public from all parts of the country who have taken the time to attend this debate.

It is an absolute disgrace that when the Minister for Education and Science completed her speech, she left this Chamber. Not only did she refuse to listen to the Members on this side of the House, she also refused to listen to some of the very fine and constructive contributions made by her backbenchers and other Members on the Government side. Deputy Gogarty referred to a meeting of minds. I very much regret that the Minister chose to walk out of the debate in the manner she did tonight.

Three hours were allowed for this debate in our Parliament. The reason people are in the Gallery and elsewhere in the House to listen to this debate was summed up very well by Deputy Wall, who asked why parents of children with special needs must fight for everything. That is exactly what is happening in 2010 although we believed we had surmounted the problem in the past ten or 15 years. Parents must fight for everything.

The Minister's speech tonight was a cut-and-paste version of the speech on this topic given by the former Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, in the Seanad a month ago. Line for line, it is the same, and it was written by some civil servant.

I repeat the allegation that this is a cost-cutting exercise. We now have the evidence. Three hundred and fifty posts are gone this year and the review is not over. In the past three months, I have been asking the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, for this information. The joint committee could not even obtain it. Why is the Dáil treated like a complete doss-house? That is exactly the way in which the Government and its unelected quangos treat this House. Why could the information not be given to me and other colleagues over the past few months?

Suddenly tonight, by miraculous intervention on the NCSE website, we have the information. What an affront to the Parliament and the elected Members of this House. As Deputy Stanton said, none of the three Ministers referred to the Special Education Appeals Board, set up under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, and to the fact that €330,000 has been spent on it to date. They have not used this information because they are afraid to ask independent people outside the NCSE to examine decisions that have been made. That is a fact.

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