David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have met hundreds of parents of children with disabilities in recent months, primarily in the area of healthcare and accessing speech and language therapy support, occupational therapy, child psychology and physiotherapy - a whole range of supports that children with disabilities need and cannot get because we do not have adequate resourcing of children’s disability network teams. Part of that involves the lack of supports in schools. There is obviously a clear link between the assessments of need the HSE should be providing but was not providing - it was found by the High Court to be in breach of the law in respect of those services - and children's educational needs. An assessment of need was, in theory, to look at the health but also at the educational needs of a child.

Children with special needs are being failed. Some weeks ago, the National Principals Forum published a survey which outlined in very stark terms the nature of that failure. Children with additional needs are on average receiving 21% fewer hours of specialised learning support than 15 years ago. That is a damning indictment of successive Governments of which the Minister's party was part. The vast majority of primary schools have more pupils with additional needs than they had four years ago yet the most recent allocation of SNA positions were frozen for the third year in a row. Eight in ten principals want a full-scale review and a new child-centred system for allocation of special needs resources and places in schools so that every child with additional needs can receive the support that they need in the most appropriate setting. For the vast majority of children with special needs, that should be in a mainstream school.

I mentioned the recent High Court finding that the HSE was in breach of the law around assessments of need. The judge referred to the lack of co-operation between the HSE and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, on the allocation of resources. It blamed the Government for not commencing the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act which successive Governments have promised but which has not happened. One in four children's disability network posts are vacant. That is a phenomenal figure. We are told that 700 posts, mainly therapist posts, cannot be filled amounting to 400,000 hours of therapy that children cannot get because the posts cannot be filled. We hear excuse after excuse from the Government for why these issues cannot be resolved and how difficult it is to recruit staff but we see no plan in place to increase training places for all these positions so that we can recruit more. These children have constitutional and legal rights to these services. According to AsIAm, at least 267 children will not have appropriate places this September. Each one of those children who will not have a place this year because of Government failure are being badly let down in so many different areas: they are not getting the assessments of need that they deserve, the therapy supports or school places. Deputy Tully organised a meeting in the audiovisual room some weeks ago which was very well attended. Five parents of children with special needs, mainly autism, all told stories of their children, what they were like, how much they love them and how brilliant they were but also how challenging it was because of their disabilities. It was heartbreaking to hear how almost every one of those parents felt let down by the system in access to healthcare supports, therapy supports and also a failure to provide proper school supports and places. That is unacceptable. What we are calling for is clear. First, we want the Minister to publish the real number of children in need of places. We want her to expedite legislation to ensure adequate provision in schools and we want to ensure that every single child has an appropriate place in September when the schools recommence. It is the Minister's job to deliver it.

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