Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before the last general election the Tánaiste made a significant commitment in regard to people, particularly young children, with disabilities and special needs. There is an unacceptable situation facing children in terms of the provision of special needs supports in our schools. The deadline for applications for special needs assistants is tomorrow, 20 September, whereas last year it was 15 October. By definition, therefore, the Government is putting far more pressure on schools, parents and children in this regard. We have 71,000 children starting school this month, 10,000 more than last year. The shortening of the deadline is a back-door way of implementing unacceptable cuts. We are witnessing a constant limiting and restriction of support.

I wish to raise a case which illustrates this very seriously. I do not normally like to raise individual cases, but I have the permission of the parents of Kate Crowley, who is aged five and from Cork, to do so. She is a child who was presented at birth with an extraordinary set of challenges. She has had five surgeries and has multiple issues in terms of special needs. She is wheelchair-bound, has spinal rods, severe respiratory conditions and hearing problems, to mention but a few. She has come through her life thus far with a remarkable fighting spirit. She is intellectually very bright and has tremendous support from her parents.

Kate was refused a dedicated special needs assistant and was ultimately told she could have access, with five other children, to the services of one assistant. From my experience in education and health down through the years, this struck me as a case obviously in need of address. I raise it because it illustrates that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system when a child like Kate Crowley is refused a special needs assistant. In my humble opinion it is very obvious that she should have one. She has not yet started school this September despite the multiplicity of conditions she has.

Why is it that the system now seems to be restricting access to education and making parents fight and struggle all along the way? Kate's parents have been through the mill and are happy to be supporting their child, but they should not have been put through this particular struggle. There is a need for advocacy at the centre of the system, but it is missing. This case illustrates the problem more than anything I have come across in recent years.

See this speech in context