Results 241-260 of 468 for speaker:Liam Fitzgerald

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Government has always conducted its business in this way. On the one hand, Senator O'Toole is saying he acknowledges and accepts that this approach has worked and that he does not want to disturb it, while, on the other, he is arguing for the removal from the Bill of an element which acknowledges the way in which the Government works. The wording in the Bill does nothing other than...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: It is also extremely progressive and significantly enhances the powers of the Minister for Education and Science to make "adequate provision". With the deepest respect to my colleague, Senator O'Toole, the term "adequate provision" is subjective and arbitrary.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Its use would not, therefore, guarantee that adequate resources would be made available. Nevertheless, I respect the Senator's view and support the general principle involved. His proposal would not, however, definitively result in the objective he seeks being achieved. I am happy with and encouraged by the substantial improvements made to section 13. As has been stated, its reference to the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Section 13 is unique and unprecedented and will shape the exercise of the Minister for Finance's discretion in a way that has never happened before.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: It has happened in the Bill, which provides that if the Minister for Finance fails to make adequate provision and resources available to the Minister for Health and Children or the Minister for Education and Science, or both, to discharge their duties under the legislation, those who suffer may have grounds for review of the Minister's failure by the High Court. That is a key advance at the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Minister of State will agree that there is unwarranted concern — I will not call it hysteria — and over-sensitivity regarding the inclusion of a requirement to obtain the consent of the Minister for Finance. This provision merely acknowledges what has always been and will continue to be the case.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Its inclusion does not take from the fact that substantial progress has been made with regard to the rights of the child being vindicated in law within the framework of the National Council for Special Education.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: That word invites a subjective interpretation and the matter could still end up in the courts.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Senator's comments are extraneous.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: When Senator O'Toole and Senator Tuffy raised the issue previously it was unclear to me what they meant. However, the Minister of State and Senator Tuffy have now clarified that they were referring specifically to instruments of measurement. I take it that the Minister of State is dealing with that matter. This amendment relates to the wider issue of children's cultural and linguistic...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I have little about which to disagree with Senator Tuffy in this regard. Where the special educational need is deemed by the principal of the school — who, as a professional, is rightly the first arbiter of the case because of his or her statutory status in education — to be relatively uncomplicated, there is a clear onus on the principal to take a sequence of actions culminating in the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I am not clear why Senator Burke deems it necessary to include the adjective "individual" because my understanding of the Bill was that at its core was the individuality of the child. That core principle is consistent throughout the Bill. Perhaps I have misinterpreted it but that was my clear understanding of what the Bill was about. If it was not about individuality and the individual needs...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: As a parent and — in remote years — a teacher, I am very supportive of the Bill's provisions which bring parents more and more towards the centre of participation in the process. I have difficulty with the amendment for a couple of reasons. It is very difficult to define the role of "partnership". If one were to include the words "in a spirit of partnership", certain difficulties would...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Is it not true that this matter is covered under the guidelines and regulations in the National Council for Special Education Order? Once specialists, whether operating privately or publicly, carry out the assessment within those guidelines, they are covered.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I am sympathetic towards the concerns articulated on both sides. Nobody wants a lacuna to result from, or even be defined in, the Bill for post-18 year olds. Those of us who have been in the educational field or are parents will have children or know friends of their children who availed of or should have been able to avail of special educational facilities. I am not sure how amending the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The amendment has much to recommend it and I support the principles articulated by Senator Ulick Burke. Over the years, many opportunities were lost due to a lack of co-ordination between the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Education and Science, and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The appointment of the Minister of State, whose responsibility spans...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Second Stage. (23 Jun 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The section provides somebody, whether a professional, a parent, voluntary organisation or representative group, with real teeth to seek a judicial review of a decision or decisions by the Ministers. That is a significant difference. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, on securing this ground-breaking measure from his Cabinet colleagues. I am confident the implementation of the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Second Stage. (23 Jun 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I have evidence that they exist in my constituency. When I am at home, my better half constantly informs me of the difficulties that exist. Such difficulties impinge most at junior infant level. Everyone agrees that justice delayed is justice denied. However, we should also agree that the delay of a service to a child with a special need is a right denied. The damage caused by such a failure...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Second Stage. (23 Jun 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I would never do that.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Second Stage. (23 Jun 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Senator can take my word for it.