Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is well aware of the challenges facing the parents of children with special needs in Cork and their concerns in regard to the process of reconfiguration of service delivery that is now under way. I attended the meeting at which she outlined in great detail what is proposed in this regard and attempted to allay some of the fears that were raised from the floor. The difficulty, however, is that the communication breakdown between the HSE and parents' groups remains a problem. Several of the parents who attended the public meeting and whose children are attending special needs schools had received virtually no information on the proposed reconfiguration before the Minister of State provided some of the details. From speaking to parents in recent days, it seems this communication deficit has not yet been addressed. There are parents who are still not aware of the plans that are being implemented. This is something that needs to be taken on board by the Department.

I am sure the Minister of State is aware of the meeting that took place last Monday in the HSE offices in Cork at which parents of children with special needs had an opportunity to voice their concerns about the changes that are taking place. I assume she received the minutes of the meeting, as did I, which clearly point to the concerns that remain outstanding and which must be addressed as soon as possible. One of the main concerns relates to the issue of parent representation on the implementation groups. The answer attendees received to queries as to whether there might be increased representation was that the proposed complement of four is larger than that in other geographical areas. In other words, the message was that four parent representatives is more than enough. That position must be clarified. At the same time, there is a genuine concern among parents that the requirements of the parent representative role go above and beyond what they should be asked to do. The Minister of State will recall from the public meeting she attended that many people are concerned that anybody who accepts the role of parent representative on the implementation group will be held responsible for all of the decisions made. I accept that the Minister of State sought to clarify this matter at the meeting, but that fear persists.

The other main concern among parents is how the changes can be implemented on a cost neutral basis. In fact, there is a genuine view among parents that it is simply not possible. Nobody has yet been able to provide them with details or a plan for how to improve the services and implement the proposed reconfiguration on a cost neutral basis without impacting on front-line services. If the Minister of State could outline how that is proposed to be achieved, it might ease parents' fears. There was a debate at the public meeting around the need for a mapping of services. An argument is being put forward that such mapping should be in place before the implementation groups are established. To do it the other way around would seem to be putting the cart before the horse. Will the Minister of State comment on that?

There is a danger that parents will be pitted against parents. The minutes of last Monday's meeting show there are already differences of opinion, with parents of children attending mainstream schools or units attached to mainstream schools indicating a wish to proceed with nominating representatives to the implementation group as quickly as possible.

On the other hand there are parents of children attending special schools who are very wary about nominating representatives and proceeding with the implementation group. We are already seeing a kind of breakdown within the implementation groups, with parents not being able to agree on the best way forward.

The other concern that came out of the meeting, which I hope will be addressed, was that parents were being asked to partake in the groups but they did not have all the documentation and did not know what the overall plan was. No policy documents were provided to them for studying before they were asked to join the implementation groups.

See this speech in context