Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am here, like everybody else, trying to help. I believe that for those with special difficulties in education, we must find the road map forward. Deputy Ó Cuív and others have suggested the Minister would go into a tunnel with the teaching bodies, the SNA representatives and the parents’ representatives. I know of some traumatic situations for parents, as we all do. Their children need this special education. Special needs teachers and SNAs want to impart their expertise and their love and caring attitude towards these children with special needs, given such a loving relationship has been fostered. I salute the boards of management in many schools which set up the special rooms and brought teachers into them, as well as the contribution of the community. It has been working great.

We need to focus and to go into that tunnel, but there must be light at the end of the tunnel. This will be our third attempt so we cannot have any more false dawns for the parents and families of special education children. They need certainty and routine. The routine was part of the relief when they went from the home and were collected by the bus driver or taxi driver. We must also bring them into the discussions. We cannot expect buses just to be there and to be turned on and off like a tap. It is a loving relationship and a very special relationship but we need to foster it and we need that done delicately and sensitively.

There are some parties of the left that want to hijack this to forward their own position. That is utterly wrong. All together, we must try to sort this out, get it right in the next week or two and give those special children the services. We must allow the SNAs and those caring people who love doing their work to be able to be in a safe environment, with certainty and guaranteed safety of the children, the parents, the bus drivers and the communities. I appeal to the Minister to sit down with them and to do that. I commend her on her work to date and her attitude towards this. The Minister understands it and they understand it. It is a matter of getting someone in there. If it needs an outside person to organise that, somebody to bring people together, we must get that person, but we must move forward positively.

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