Results 28,461-28,480 of 50,916 for speaker:Micheál Martin
- Order of Business (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: There is a commitment in the programme for Government to change the general practitioners' contract. I would appreciate it if the Taoiseach could indicate to me the up-to-date position on that. There is major concern in rural Ireland about the real actual shortage of GPs. There are towns without GPs. Posts are not being advertised, or have been advertised but to no avail because no one is...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Did the Attorney General point them out to the Taoiseach?
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: But this is not doing that. This is going in the opposite direction. It is a general allocation model. The child's needs are becoming irrelevant.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I did, actually. I did an awful lot.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: No, it is the opposite.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: That is what this document says.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: We did not see the Attorney General's advice. That is why.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: These are legal issues, not terms of reference.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: We were only consulted on the terms of reference.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: They are 15 months at it now.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: The Taoiseach has to bury this as long as he can.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Slowly but surely, the Department of Education and Skills and the National Council for Special Education are retreating from special education in mainstream schools, and they are consistently undermining it by developing wrong models. Special education is under-resourced at the moment and it is not prioritised by the Government. I have met with the parents of children with special needs,...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: At the moment parents are waiting because adequate resources are not being put into the assessment and diagnosis of children with special needs from an early age. The new proposal is for schools to take in the children and avail of a general allocation, whereby they can intervene even without a professional diagnosis. It is also shoving everything back to the parent, because the parent will...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I find the Taoiseach's response extraordinary because nobody seems to know what is going on in the Government. The Taoiseach is saying he cannot understand the idea of a child not needing a professional diagnosis.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: It is what the Minister is proposing. This is the document. There was a meeting of 500 people recently in UCC being briefed by the National Council for Special Education, and it is saying that one of the benefits of the new system is that parents will not have to wait for a professional diagnosis any more. The idea is that there is an educational intervention without any professional...
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: Sorry?
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: I will not have time in a minute to read it all out. It is a presentation entitled "Delivery for Students with Special Educational Needs: A Better and More Equitable Way," from the Irish Learning Support Association annual conference.
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: This is the Minister's document. Here it says-----
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: "No waiting for diagnosis; No unnecessary labelling".
- Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2015)
Micheál Martin: If one looks at last year's circular on special needs assistants and at this, one can see a fundamental retreat from special education in mainstream schools. That is what it amounts to. It is talking about standardised tests, social context and the whole idea of a special ring-fenced-----