Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I held a public meeting about the EPSEN Act in 2023 as part of the review. Like anything involving parents with children who have additional needs, it was an eye-opening experience. I thank all the parents who have reached out to me over the years. The most important question we need to ask is whether children are given equal access to education by the system which supports their development. We have come a long way, especially in recent years. The answer is that we still have a long way to go.

I will speak about some of the things I covered in my submission a couple of years ago. At that meeting were parent representatives from Chasing Justice, the Dublin 15 autism campaign, AsIAm and the Children's Rights Alliance. We will not have an inclusive school environment and culture if inclusion is not supported throughout the education system. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, are moving on teacher training. All students teachers need experience in special schools and classes. While inclusive education is covered in initial education training, it is limited and theoretical in its approach. Dyslexia needs far more attention.

The Minister of State knows I support the provision of more reading classes.

There should be better access to continued development for qualified teachers and comprehensive training for members of boards of management. Without a consistent approach in the training of teachers, the experience of students will continue to be inconsistent. Despite the investment in special education - and it is significant - we do not have an effective forward planning system for the delivery of school places and enough appropriate supports. We are still in an annual cycle of a scramble for school places for children with additional needs. The Minister of State and I know this needs to end.

I welcome the new timeline the Minister of State has outlined to sanction new classes and the bringing forward of the deadline when students should be alerted to the NCSE who require a special class or special school place, but 1 October is very early in the admission cycle and school year. Parents and guardians must be no doubt about how this process will work. That is why I have already suggested to the Minister of State a campaign that goes beyond the NCSE, schools and public representatives to generate awareness, and not just of the timeline but how it actually works. We should also be planning five years in advance to meet the new projections that the Department has for children with additional needs.

I also wish to talk about trust in the NCSE and the parent experience. Too many parents are still being let down by the system and I continue to be shocked on too many occasions by interactions with the NCSE. I applaud the task force in Dublin 15 for its work. The Minister of State met its members today. The common applications trial and the collaboration between the Department, the NCSE, parents and schools will bring positive change. Yesterday, however, as the Minister of State knows, I was again in the presence of parents in a desperately unfair and unacceptable situation. The school in question has outlined a sequence of events based on its workings with the NCSE that point to a legitimate understanding and expectation that the students had secured places in their local school. Many are already members of the school and school community, but the NCSE seems to have taken a dramatically different approach in recent weeks. For the life of me, I cannot understand how we have ended up where we are. We need to have positive and constructive relationships with our local schools. Whatever promises have been made need to be kept. I know the Minister of State is aware of the situation and is prioritising it as we speak. I urge that there be a resolution and clarity as soon as possible.

I also welcome the student support plans, or the individual education plans as I know them, being put on a statutory footing. I do not want to be talking about securing school places all the time. I want to be talking more about what happens when children get into the school.

I support the AsIAm call for special education policy to be rooted in legislation. That is important. It has been 21 years since the EPSEN Act. We had an implementation plan. We need to start implementing that policy and seeing the benefits and the transformative change that the Minister of State, the Minister and the Government are working on.

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