Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In welcoming the Bill, which seeks to grant all children with Down's syndrome automatic entitlement to resource teaching hours, I compliment Deputy Finian McGrath on bringing the Bill to the House. In particular, I pay tribute to Pat Clarke of Down Syndrome Ireland for the way in which he has engaged with all of us. He is a model of how we can do business. I come to this debate with experience garnered from my years as a citizen with many friends whose children have Down's syndrome, as a schoolteacher and as a member of COPE Foundation, which is the patron of special schools in Cork city.

The basic tenet of this Bill is entitlement to provision but we as parliamentarians and legislators must look at what is behind the text of the Bill to see how it would be implemented on the ground and whether it would have the desired effect that is in keeping with the spirit of the Bill. That is why it is important that it be referred to the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection.

It is important that in supporting this Bill, we make reference to other pieces of legislation enacted by the House over the past number of years including the Special Educational Needs Act and the Disability Act, which contains provisions on the assessment of needs. We should also make reference to the national disability strategy, the focus in progressing disability services for children and the advice of the National Educational Psychological Service, the INTO and the Psychological Society of Ireland. Underpinning all of the Acts mentioned above and advice coming from all national experts and teaching organisations is that fact that for additional resources to be meaningful and optimal, they should be individualised and personally tailored to meet the unique learning and development needs of the individual child. We are talking about the individual needs of the child who is a person in his or her own right. Yes, resource teaching hours should be available to all children with Down's syndrome but the work done by the resource teacher with that child should be designed on the basis of thorough assessment throughout delivery based on best practice and reviewed on a regular basis. There is also an implicit, and I would argue, explicit assumption that such work should be agreed with the child or the parents of the child if appropriate. There needs to be involvement with the parents or guardians of children in this case. Resource teaching hours are important but it is essential that we contextualise the totality of education provision to a child with Down's syndrome. The individual education plan should become an essential and real educational passport for all children with special needs, not just children with Down's syndrome.

I have noted the comments of the Minister earlier this week when he stated that the NCSE is expected to bring recommendations in the next two months on a revised system of allocating resource teaching hours to schools for children with disabilities which could replace the system in place since 2005. This new model should include the automatic entitlement but should also include an automatic built-in audit and management system to ensure that the resources are being used to maximum effect.

Last week saw the passing of Paul O'Donoghue who with his mother took legal action in 1993 against the State to assert his constitutional right to an education. Paul and his mother were courageous and determined and through their actions opened the door for many others with severe and profound disability to access an education, which is their right. What was crucial and central to that legal action and what I believe is central to the debate before us today was the definition of education that was used and an acknowledgement that all children are entitled to an education that is suitable and adaptable to meet their needs. For me and others, education must not be defined narrowly as the three Rs. Instead, we must broaden that definition.

There are those who would turn this into a political football. Deputy Finian McGrath, to be fair, has not done that. It should not be a political football. It should be an honest and holistic debate on what is best for the children who need it and their families. Let us have that debate in the committee to which it has been referred. I commend Deputy McGrath on this Bill, which will provoke a very good and honest debate from which change will result which will be to the betterment of all concerned.

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