Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Finian McGrath for introducing this legislation. In any civilised society there are some fundamental principles to which every single citizen must be entitled. Among these fundamental principles are: the right of access to quality health care, when needed; the right to live in a warm, secure home; the right to adequate clothing and nourishment; the right to a level of education necessary to permit the person to achieve the maximum possible level of personal and occupational achievement; and the right to love and be loved and to be treated with respect. People with special needs, particularly children, must have these fundamental principles applied.

Recent Government budgetary choices and actions have undermined these fundamental principles, in particular, the withdrawal of discretionary medical cards from people with a long-term, severe and sometimes terminal illness; the reduction in respite care services; and the policy decision that children with autism spectrum and other psychological disorders are not "disabled" enough to qualify for carer's allowance, the respite care grant, special needs assistants and special needs resource teaching hours.

The overriding determinant in Ireland today is not by how much we can improve the living and learning potential of vulnerable children but by how much we can cut services to remain within budget and still hope to win the next election. The so-called Celtic tiger appears to have destroyed more than the economy; it has also destroyed decency and compassion. This is not the Ireland dreamed of by Pearse, Connolly and MacDiarmada and the founding fathers.

Deputy Finian McGrath's Bill seeks to give all children with Down's syndrome an automatic entitlement to resource hours, regardless of assessed need, with the number of hours to be determined by an allocation model using the level of learning disability. I fully understand why the Deputy has brought forward the Bill. Like me and all other Deputies, he has experience of being approached by parents and teachers of Down's syndrome children with severe learning disabilities who have had resource hours refused or reduced. I can see why people would want and need a guarantee of a minimum number of hours for children with Down's syndrome and all other children, irrespective of the diagnosis, who require this support.

Sinn Féin believes the provision of supports to enable children with disabilities to reach their full potential should be a legal right, not a privilege to be granted or withheld at the whim of a Government or any budget holder. It is wrong that any child with Down's syndrome who needs resource hours should be refused them or have the required number of hours reduced because of budget choices. That should not happen. This is the key point. If the Government, in acting on behalf of and in the name of the people, agrees with the fundamental principles of a civilised democracy, the right to a level of education necessary to permit the person to achieve the maximum possible level of personal and occupational attainment, legislation must be brought forward to ensure this right is enshrined and protected in law. It also requires a legal guarantee that adequate funding will be made available to ensure the assessed numbers of hours will not and cannot be pared back because of resource shortages or budget choices.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Sherlock, for his statement that the Minister for Education and Skills is obliged to have regard to the advice and recommendations of the experts in these matters. The real experts are with us today in the Visitors Gallery. They are the ones to whom the Minister and the Department need to talk.

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