Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that the Minister announced the removal of the over-age exemption in the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme from September 2018 onwards in respect of children with special needs. I am pleased that, presumably when she got notice of this debate and after a strong campaign by parents that garnered more than 20,000 signatures, she last night announced that she would be pressing the pause button to allow parents to be consulted before making her final decision.

It is vital that all of our children have the best possible start in life and that the concerns of their parents be heard. More than 20,000 people signed the petition calling for the plans not to proceed. While the pause is welcome, I hope that when the Minister begins consulting parents, she becomes convinced that the extra year offers a special child the capacity to address issues that he or she has and that might not be addressed in primary education but that can be addressed, perhaps in a better way, in preschool education. As the Minister is aware, many children on the autism spectrum and with other special needs have specific language and learning difficulties. It may take them more time to catch up and realise their full potential.

I have spoken to many parents who have been shocked. They work hard looking after their children. The idea that the special extra year that has been available to date would be removed and that a child with special needs might end up in primary school a year earlier is difficult to understand, given all of the planning that has gone into special provision and the fact that we were only recently able to guarantee - during the time that I was in government - that early care and preschool services would become available on a national basis to children with special needs.

I hope that the consultation process will ensure an outcome that puts the needs of all of the children first and that those with special needs are supported in every way possible when starting school and throughout their journeys through the mainstream school system. Every child is different and policy has to reflect the needs of every child as well as his or her parents and families, who are obviously the ones who know that child best.

The Minister accepted the recommendation of experts. Experts produce considerable advice and knowledge that is valuable, but they do not know the individual children. What has upset parents is the idea that the attention they have given their children somehow or other will play second fiddle to views of experts that, however well-intentioned, could in the parents' view result in a serious setback for their children, whom they believe need extra time.

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