Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to raise the matter of St. Joseph's centre for the visually impaired, Gracepark Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 and its efforts to build a new centre of excellence to provide visually impaired people with appropriate accommodation in respect of the current and future delivery of services. I call on the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, to support this project and to use the recession as a reason to build the centre and provide jobs and investment on the north side of Dublin, particularly in the constituency of Dublin North-Central. This project is worth €40 million and represents a glorious opportunity. Damian O'Farrell, who is standing as an Independent candidate in the local elections, also wants these services for the visually impaired to be provided in our area and is fighting to ensure that this proves to be the case.

St. Joseph's currently provides education and health care services to all children in the State who are blind and partially sighted. Increasingly, it is working with children who also have multiple disabilities in addition to their visual impairments. In recent years, St. Joseph's has moved to provide, in addition to schooling, early intervention, assessments, preschool, vision-clinic services, primary and secondary education, recreation and sports activities and vocational training. This is supported by a residential provision, both on and off campus, which encourages children who attend St. Joseph's to be more independent. In addition, it operates a large print and Braille production centre, which provides classroom textbooks for all children in mainstream schools. Further, it continually trains and works with professionals and parents who are in direct contact with children with a visual impairment throughout Ireland.

This is a radical and exciting new project and has huge potential. I am aware that the Department of Education and Science is interested in it. I urge the Minister of State, who has a strong interest in and supports people with disabilities, to take the lead in respect of this matter. It is time to support St. Joseph's.

When one considers the services currently on offer, one is very impressed. For example, the assessment service offers a multidisciplinary process through which the needs and abilities of a child or young person with a significant sight loss can be identified. This service is the starting point for making recommendations with regard to which interventions best enable each child to reach his or her individual potential. The preschool and early intervention service provides specialised support and skills to children, from birth to six years, in partnership with their families. It also offers a holistic approach to the education of young children, as well as support, information and guidance to families and agencies.

St. Joseph's also provides primary and secondary education. The primary school is inclusive in nature, with pupils following a broad and balanced curriculum and where all children are given opportunities to participate in a wide range of learning activities. The secondary school is situated adjacent to the St. Joseph's campus and students who are visually impaired and sighted are educated together there. The school offers a wide range of academic and practical subjects. The staff includes six dedicated teachers for the visually impaired. These people work and provide a service in the public sector. It may not be trendy or fashionable to praise public sector workers at present but I take this opportunity to do so once again.

St. Joseph's also provides vocational training. Its vocational training programme is designed to meet the particular needs of young adults of 16 years and older who have a visual impairment. These individuals are likely to have recently completed the special education cycle in secondary school and have an additional disability or special needs arising from a developmental delay and also needs relating to their independence, social and personal skills.

The family resource centre, FRC, at St. Joseph's offers an extensive outreach programme to young people with a visual impairment and their families. The service is accessed through a yearly calendar of events and is open to all visually impaired children, from birth to early adulthood, throughout Ireland. The FRC caters not only for children with a visual impairment but also for those with additional disabilities. It hosts a variety of events — training days, seminars, exhibitions and information, advice and discussion groups — for the families of these children in these groups.

I urge the Minister for Education and Science to meet the project team from St. Joseph's and to strongly support the new centre of excellence for the visually impaired, which is essential for many people. I urge that there be movement, that action be taken and, above all, that a common-sense approach be adopted. I support St. Joseph's.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Deputy Finian McGrath for raising this matter and apologise on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, who could not be present. I am pleased to have an opportunity to clarify the position regarding the proposed centre.

The Deputy may be aware that a decision was taken in 2003 that the centre as originally proposed should not proceed, having regard to the low and declining pupil numbers in the school for the visually impaired and the development costs involved, estimated to be in excess of €30 million. A scaled down version of a national centre was subsequently proposed, to be staffed by a range of professionals, including expert in-house assessment such as speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, mobility therapy and ophthalmology as well as counselling, pre-school and outreach support services.

The Deputy will also be aware that in the context of inclusive education, the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 provides that a child, defined as a person who is not more than 18 years, with special educational needs must be educated in an inclusive setting unless such an arrangement is inconsistent with the best interests of the child or with the effective provision of education for those children with whom the child is to be educated.

In the past, children who were blind or had a visual impairment were unable to attend their local schools and had to travel distances to avail of specialised intervention. Today, many of these children attend their local schools with additional special educational supports, where necessary. My Department, through the NCSE, funds additional teaching and special needs assistant support for these pupils where such additional supports are necessary. In addition, funding is provided for specialist equipment and-or assistive technology. My Department also funds the National Braille Production Centre which translates textbooks into Braille, large print and other formats. Current policy and best practice in regard to health service delivery for blind and visually impaired pupils is that they remain and are supported in their local communities.

As the Minister indicated in his response to the Deputy's parliamentary question on 27 January, he met with representatives from St. Joseph's school recently and a further meeting is being arranged to discuss the matter. The Minister advised the delegation that his Department is willing to work with St. Joseph's school in the context of identifying any upgrading work required to the school that is consistent with the use of the premises for educational purposes. Any refurbishments will be considered in a prioritised manner. As in all other areas of expenditure, the timing of these refurbishments is dependent on the resources available to the Government.

The Minister is pleased to inform the Deputy that he confirmed to representatives of the school that his Department will provide a grant of €12,000 to St. Joseph's school towards the costs of its hosting the seventh European conference of the International Council for the Education of People with Visual Impairment next July. This grant was furnished to St. Joseph's last December. On behalf of the Minister, I thank Deputy McGrath for his ongoing interest in this issue.