Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is making it plain that the reason the experts' opinions are not being taken fully on board is that they do not have the knowledge or awareness of the current resources. Is this not an admission that the child's individual needs are secondary to the resources that are available? The Minister of State might say it is about time I started living in the real world and that is the way it is, but at least he should admit it and stop pretending that the child's needs come first.

The State is forcing some parents to go to court. Recently, in a case involving two families with children with Down's syndrome, Mr. Justice Nicholas Kearns directed the Department of Education and Skills to give the children the maximum resource teaching hours so they could stay in mainstream schooling. It is disappointing if the State is going to drive parents into the courts to get a fair deal. We know that only those parents who can afford to go to court will get a fair deal for their children and that children from less privileged backgrounds or from marginalised communities whose parents do not have the resources to go to court will not have the opportunity of using the courts because they cannot afford it.

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