Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We should salute the teachers, the SNAs and parents who do incredible work for children with special needs. I happened to be part of a conversation in recent weeks where an individual said to me that those people expect everything. I told that person that those people, parent or parents, teachers and SNAs go way beyond their call of duty to help to make things better for their children or their pupils. That is only right because according to the Constitution we are supposed to cherish all the children of the nation equally. I acknowledge that there are improvements and things are happening.

I compliment Deputies Byrne, O'Loughlin and Murphy O'Mahony who have done a lot of work on this issue. We need to speed things up and take away the roadblocks because parents of children with special needs have to work their way through a lot of roadblocks. I know several parents of children with special needs very well. The day starts for many of those families at 6 a.m., getting the child or children ready. It is a difficult process, we all know that. They have to get that child onto a bus. I know of one case where the child spends a certain number of days at home and two or three days in care. The transport is provided from the home but not from the centre to the school. That type of thing should not be happening. It is deeply frustrating and upsetting to parents of children with special needs. Schools cannot put special classes in place for those children if they do not get the finance. I know of parents who drive 18 or 20 miles to a school to ensure that their child with special needs is facilitated. We need more units and to try to keep children in their own communities.

Some parents recently had to go to court about July provision. While they did not win their case, the court made it quite clear that special provisions were to be put in place to assist the parents of Down's syndrome children. The goalposts have changed and we as legislators have to deal with this issue. Many of those special needs children need that provision during the summer months. Parents say they slip back a long way if they do not have that type of provision. As far as I am aware autistic children have that provision but Down's syndrome children do not.

It is important that we pass the motion and that we vigorously pursue the issue. Some 900 children last year had to receive home tuition because they could not secure places in schools and the figure is rising. We must rectify that. It is great to have home tuition and I welcome the funding for it, but I am sure we would all agree it is better for children to mix with other children and be part of a national school process. We need to do much more and recognise that the matter must be dealt with. If we are to treat all the children of the nation equally, we will have to work harder and, if necessary, put more funding in place to ensure that all children will be provided for, if possible in their local school.

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