Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was very glad to take part in a recent cabinet subcommittee meeting that exclusively looked at this issue for three hours. It was hugely informative. Perhaps I may share some personal reflections on this. There was some media comment in recent years on the New Brunswick model, whereby everyone can be in a mainstream school. The view of many parents' advocacy organisations here, and to my mind rightly, is that we will still need a variety of choice. For each child there is a different need. Included in this for a variety of conditions we will need special schools that cater for special needs, or special abilities as one of my colleagues rightly calls them. It is also noticeable when we look at the research statistics that there has been an amazing increase in the amount spent on special needs education in our country, be it on special needs assistants, special teachers or special schools.

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