Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is ten years since the provision of services for children with special educational needs was given formal recognition by the former Minister for Education, Mr. Noel Dempsey. At that time, just under 1.5% of the total departmental budget was allocated in this area; the allocation now is in the order of 15%. A great deal of research has been undertaken in the meantime and the thinking, as contained in the report from the NCSE, is more orientated towards resourcing the profiling of schools, which we can now do with a greater degree of accuracy than before, and resourcing those schools in a manner that enables them, by the deployment of those resources, to reach out to all children with different levels of learning abilities and disabilities.

That is the type of space we are trying to carve out, but it is not easy. As I said, the report that is due next spring will be discussed in this House and implemented. Parents should not have to go to court to obtain what we all want for our children, namely, the best possible education.

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