Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The EPSEN Act was passed in 2005. It deals with special education and was meant to confer statutory rights on children with special needs in terms of assessment and the provision of individual education plans. What is quite extraordinary is that 11 years on key sections of the legislation have never been commenced. It is those sections which confer on children the right to an assessment and to have an individual education plan. The sections that have been commenced relate fundamentally to policy, the establishment of the special education review council and other structural elements of the Act. However, the parts of it that give rights to children have never been commenced.

When one talks to parents of children with special needs, it is very disturbing to learn about the obstacles they have to face in seeking basic assessments for their young children in order that the education provisions made can properly respond to their complex needs. In terms of psychological services, for example, most principals will say they have to play God every year and that, in terms of the availability of the National Educational Psychological Service, they have to select from a large number of children who can avail of the two psychological assessments provided in the school. On physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, there is appalling provision for children with special needs. The current model, situated in the HSE, is simply not working. Progressing disability services is a myth.

It will never happen. It is the wrong model because it takes children out of the classroom. What is required is a multidisciplinary response in the classroom or education setting whereby the physiotherapist, occupational therapist and speech and language therapist work with the teaching professionals and an adequately resourced psychological service to attend to the needs of children with special needs. In yesterday's budget, the provision in that area was unclear but it is critical to the proper development of the child that he or she have access to a proper, timely assessment of his or her particular condition or special need.

It speaks volumes that no one within the system has ever taken it upon himself to say the sections of the EPSEN Act that are key to the rights of the child have never been commenced. The Act was passed 11 years ago in the midst of considerable debate, which I remember well. The failure to commence the sections probably goes to the heart of why advocacy for children with special needs is still missing in our education system. Could the Taoiseach indicate why the relevant sections of the Act have not been commenced?

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