Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

"Nothing about us without us" is the motto of the movement for disability rights. The Government's failure to respect this principle led to its decision to launch a Green Paper on disability reform without proper consultation. Its failure to respect that principle meant the Green Paper was doomed from the start. When the Taoiseach was elected, we were told it would open up a new era for disability rights. There should be proper consultation with disabled persons organisations before the first steps were taken. To date, no disabled persons organisation that I am aware of has received an invitation from the Taoiseach's office to attend talks on this matter. Does the Taoiseach intend to send out invitations soon?

Tomorrow there will be a debate on special needs education. This is something People Before Profit requested at the Business Committee. It was prompted by a series of meetings we had on the issue of special needs. The issues brought up by parents and teachers included that the algorithm, in terms of removing complex needs as a criteria for allocating special education resources, has left one third losing resources. Generally, people asked why the hell the Government does not trust schools and parents in terms of setting out their needs and accepting those needs. What also came across again and again was in all the key areas, whether teachers themselves, special education teachers, SNAs, CDNTs or CAMHS, the big problem is staff. There does not seem to be a concerted drive to recruit people in these areas, recognising how damaging it is for our children with special needs that we are failing to resource these posts.

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