Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Bill is the direct consequence of poor preparation and a lack of forecasting with respect to the schooling needs of children with special needs. The Ombudsman for Children’s latest report into the matter pointed out: "This situation is a clear failure on the part of the State, which has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education of every child." It also noted that there are real issues with forward planning.

We are here today, while the Government struggles to deal with the consequences of its own inaction, to ensure we are not again faced with children having no appropriate school place in summer 2023. According to a study by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, titled Growing Up in Ireland, the number of students with special educational needs relative to the total student population is in the region of 25%. If the needs of one quarter of a school’s population are not being provided for, or even collated properly, there is a fundamental problem on the part of the Government and the Departments.

There needs to be a lot of reflection by the Government on these statements and the figures that accompany them. All children have a right to go to school. It is all too common that families of children with special educational needs face a summer of stress, not knowing whether their child will have a school to go to in September. We cannot forget either the panic that parents experience when unable to get a timely assessment of needs. This is at a time when they need to make arrangements for their children’s schooling, but face the obstacle put in their way by the Government’s failure to fulfil its commitments under the Disability Act 2005.

The very reason the Ombudsman for Children's report was initiated was that complaints were made to his office in relation to children with special educational needs being unable to secure appropriate school places at both primary and post-primary levels in a timely manner and close to their homes. I have raised this matter with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and An Taoiseach. I raised concerns of parents in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, as an example of children being forced to travel considerable distances from their homes to avail of the schooling they need. This is because of the lack of ASD units in the area. On each occasion, I was told that there is nothing to see here, that every option is open and to move along. That is not what many parents in the area have told me.

It is time for the Government to get its house in order, listen to the needs of parents, properly provide special educational needs organisers in each area and assess the needs of communities rather than delaying matters until it gets to the tipping point nationally that we have seen recently.

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