Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for tabling the motion before us. I welcome the parents in the Public Gallery. I also welcome the contributions that have been made so eloquently by Members across the House. I thank those who have wished us well in our endeavours.

I am delighted to have the role of Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion and to be working alongside the Minister for Education for the betterment of all. This is a role I cherish deeply, and I thank the Taoiseach for appointing me. It is a role to which I bring a significant amount of lived experience. I know full well the challenges that many families are facing on a daily basis in respect of the issues under discussion.

It is important that the issue of services for children with special educational needs is kept to the fore of Dáil proceedings at all times because this will ensure that together, across the House, the Government and society, we will deliver a better service. I listened carefully to the contributions of all Deputies. It is clear, as the Minister already outlined, that we need to continue to do more to ensure that the provision of new and additional special education placements happens earlier each school year.

The NCSE has confirmed that almost half of the 400 new special classes provided for in the coming school year have been sanctioned. It is working very closely with schools to confirm the remaining new special classes as soon as possible. I want this work to progress more quickly. It is crucial that engagement between school management bodies, the NCSE and the Department progresses as quickly as possible. Central to the current systems are co-operation and goodwill between all the partners in education. I pay particular tribute to school leaders, teachers, SNAs and all who work so hard in our school communities to make them better for children of all abilities.

The funding needed is in place and I am confident the capacity required will be provided. I will be working with my officials to ensure it is delivered as quickly as possible. As I outlined during a recent debate on the new programme for Government, over the entirety of my time as a public representative, I have always been interested in special education. As a public representative, I have met many parents over the years and assisted them with the application process. I took up this role knowing all too well the pain, anguish and frustration experienced by parents, families and entire communities. Parents often feel forgotten or ignored. They also sometimes feel they are not recognised for the challenges they face in their family lives. I say to those parents that I know the struggles they are facing and that it is one of my top priorities as Minister of State to ensure we have a system which works for parents and children. We must achieve a process whereby places become available in a timely manner. I will work to establish application timelines that will be the same as those which obtain for children with no additional needs who apply to mainstream schools.

This year, parents had to submit notifications to the NCSE by mid-February. This needs to happen earlier. We have to make sure we consider the matter further without putting extra pressure on parents to garner reports earlier as well. There is no point in changing the dates and putting more pressure on more families. We need to make sure the system is streamlined in order that there is less pressure on families and parents. Children should not be in a position of only being told in June where they are going to go to school in September. I have met parents and children at the school gate who have not known at the end of the school year in June where they will be going to school the following September. This is simply unacceptable. We have to ensure that it does not happen this year or in the future. We are all working hard to ensure that parents will know the special classes in their areas within the coming weeks. As the Minister noted, last week we had a very detailed meeting with the NCSE to identify where the challenges lie and how we can make sure there is action for families.

I am happy to work with Deputies across the House who have specific queries about individual children or specific schools in the context of special education. The Department and the NCSE will be happy to provide updates on these queries. The Minister spoke about the growth in the number of special education places, by way of special classes and new special schools, and in the number of special education teachers and SNAs.

It is important to recall that 97% of all children attending school today, including the majority of those with additional needs, do so in mainstream classroom settings. Those children are supported by the growing numbers of special educational teachers and SNAs.

My colleague from Cork made reference to teacher training. It is hugely important that we take note of that. The Minister and I both take recognition of that point. It is important that the challenges for teachers, as they are trained and come into the system, are met head-on and that those teachers are trained to do that.

The special places that will be available in September will only be made possible by the individual school leaders, the class teachers, the 15,000 special educational teachers and the 12,500 SNAs who work in mainstream classes. Some Members asked where we are going to get SNAs. Thankfully, we do not have a difficulty in recruiting SNAs. We have SNAs who are trained and willing to work. We must acknowledge the enormous contribution that SNAs are making to our educational process.

On special education and education for our most vulnerable children, we are going to have to put raw politics aside. We must all face this issue together. It is a national issue. There has been significant investment in the past while but more needs to be done. We are examining the need for therapists in special schools. There is a commitment in that regard in the programme for Government and we will work to ensure it is implemented. It is important that there are educational therapy supports in special schools. Building on this is the programme for Government's commitment to create a dedicated national therapy service.

I listened to all Members who brought forward the issues their constituents have brought to them. All of them are desperately genuine. In my time as a public representative, I have met and worked with families. We know the pain that all of those families have and the difficulty and frustration they experience every step of the way. I, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the whole of Government hope to ensure that we iron out the issues and ensure there are places for children with additional needs. We want that to happen earlier in the year to ensure we take the anguish away from parents. We must redefine how we are treating children who have additional needs and their families into the future. That is a top priority for me. In the programme for Government, disability services have been singled out as an issue on which we must make progress. Over the past five years, I had the honour of chairing the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, the membership of which comprised colleagues from across the House. We were the first parliament in Europe to have a disability matters committee. I listened at first hand to the challenges that exist not just for children but for people with disabilities from the cradle to the grave. We simply must do better in a timely manner. We must do better if we are, in all conscience, to honour what people have said before us about cherishing all people equally. I, along with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, will do what I can to ensure we have a better educational system for people with additional needs.

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