James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would not suggest that. Deputy Healy's concern, interest and bona fides in this area are clear and sincere. However, I am pointing out the dangers of unintended consequences. Taking this group out of the main group will not serve their purposes as well as leaving them in the mainstream group. The thrust of our educational approach for children with special needs is to support them in the mainstream as much as possible, for a host of reasons which I will not discuss now. As the parent of a child who had particular special needs early in life and whose outlook was very poor, I can state that keeping him in the mainstream was a major goal for us and it yielded huge results.

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