Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleague, Deputy Nolan, has indicated, Sinn Féin broadly welcomes this Bill and, in particular, the fact that schools will now be obliged to produce an admission policy that will include a statement that the school will not discriminate in its admissions on the following grounds: gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, race, membership of the Traveller community and special educational needs. We welcome that statutory agencies will be given the power to designate a school place for a child when they have been refused and that an appeal process will now be available. We also welcome that the Bill specifically prohibits the use of fees and the seeking of contributions for enrolment or continued enrolment in a school, although it is a little ambiguous - my colleague referenced this - as to what this means for the practice of voluntary contributions. Perhaps the Minister will address that in this closing remarks on Second Stage.

However, while we broadly welcome it and will support its passage to Committee Stage, we believe the Bill still does not address many of the issues of concern with respect to admissions. Special educational needs services in schools, both primary and secondary, are hard to come by and suffer from chronic underfunding, particularly in disadvantaged areas. In my capacity as spokesperson for disability rights, I am particularly concerned that this Bill does not give powers to the National Council for Special Education to request that a special class be established where there is sufficient demand as there is no power to increase capacity. The NCSE notes that many schools will not open autism classes where the local need is identifiable and there. A provision in the Bill that would give the NCSE the power to instruct a school to open an autism class would be welcome. The current situation is that a child can only be offered a place where there is an existing place. This is not acceptable and it is regrettable that the Bill will not address this issue. I ask the Minister to consider the importance of this. It is an opportunity to address this deficiency.

Given reports that have come to light this week, it is important to briefly touch on the urgent need that exists to reform the system which determines whether or not a child with particular needs can access special needs support. This issue, as the Minister will know, has been reported on quite extensively this week. It has been said that at present, the only way a child with particular needs can receive additional supports is to be diagnosed by a professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, with a diagnosis that fits a very strict criteria. This is a flawed system in which young children are being diagnosed with a specific disability for the sole purpose of receiving additional educational supports.

It is wrong, I believe, that resources are only provided for specific diagnoses. Teresa Griffin, the head of the National Council for Special Education, has said that professionals are actively making some children "fit a certain category of disability in order for them to get a resource" even though they "don’t theoretically meet the actual label".

The NCSE has rightly proposed a reformed system whereby access to resource teaching would no longer rely upon a formal diagnosis of learning difficulty, emotional or behavioural problems. The particular educational needs of the child are what matters. This is a serious issue that must be addressed as a matter of urgency. I would appreciate it if the Minister referred to this in his closing remarks on Second Stage.

Many of the problems within the education sector are down to a lack of resources. Many schools, for example, create what are referred to as soft barriers to the enrolment of children with special educational needs due to issues around resourcing. This issue needs to be addressed. As I mentioned previously, we will support the Bill to Committee Stage, but the fact remains that without appropriate investment, resources and ministerial intervention, this Bill, in and of itself, will change very little.

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