Dáil debates

Thursday, 14 January 2021

Covid-19 (Education): Statements

 

2:20 pm

Photo of Emer HigginsEmer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In many homes throughout the country right now, children with special educational needs, sadly, are regressing. For them, education is not just about learning a curriculum. It is about learning at their own rate, practising coping mechanisms and having a routine. For their parents, it is not just about school; it is also about respite. Caring for children with additional needs 24-7 is extremely tough. Doing so while juggling working from home or working on the front line and homeschooling other children is, for many, utterly impossible. Despite the best efforts of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, those parents are still in that utterly impossible situation.

We are the only First World country in the entire globe in which special schools are closed at this time. Ireland is the only country whose special needs children were caught up in a stalemate with unions. It has been utterly heartbreaking listening to parents of special needs children this week. I spoke to the father of a child with profound special needs who told me that all he was being offered was ten minutes of online schooling for his child. I spoke to a nurse who is working 12-hour shifts on our front line, homeschooling her son and struggling to homeschool her daughter with autism. I know many SNAs and teachers in special schools who are, naturally, worried about going back to work but who wish to do so because they want to be there to support their pupils. For them, their role is not just a job but a vocation. They want to be there to help their special needs students through this really challenging time.

Those teachers and SNAs, and families throughout the country, are very glad that the Minister and Minister of State have worked so hard, well and collaboratively to figure out a plan that safely returns staff to special schools and children to their special classrooms next week. For many of those children and their families, school is their lifeline. I am pleased the Minister and Minister of State are not leaving it until 1 February to allow them to return, because every day spent negotiating and every day spent at home is a day lost for the children. I thank the Minister and Minister of State for making these children their priority. Will they now look at how we can support children with additional educational needs in mainstream and ASD units, particularly where the parents are front-line workers who need to be able to send their children to special education?

I would like to tell the Minister about a family in my community. Both parents work on the front line in our health service. Their seven-year-old son has autism and is in mainstream school. Despite today's announcements, they still are not be sure how they will be catered for under this plan. They work alternative shifts, passing the parenting and homeschooling baton to each other at the end of long days working in overcrowded hospitals and tending to people in their time of need. They snatch an hour or two of sleep when they can. While their resilience, determination and courage are commendable, such parents are not indestructible. They cannot go on like this forever. The progress the Minister and Minister of State are making in helping children with special needs to access classroom-based education is very welcome and we all thank them for that. Families like the one to which I referred will be waiting with bated breath to learn how they will be catered for under the plan.

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