Results 3,421-3,440 of 8,873 for speaker:Batt O'Keeffe

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Investment in supports for special needs has more than doubled in the past five years to over €1 billion this year. More than 8,000 resource and learning support teachers and more than 10,000 special needs assistants are now in place. Assistive technology is funded, specialist equipment and furniture is provided and special school transport arrangements are in place. This investment has...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: This investment will continue to be made. The Government is committed to ensuring that as many children as possible can receive an appropriate education in their own communities, in their local school, alongside their friends, happily interacting with them. This is not, to quote the Leader of the Opposition in a debate on special needs last year, a "social experiment". Not only is inclusion...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Educating children in the least restrictive environment has become the norm in developed societies in recent times. Unfortunately, it would seem Fine Gael wants to deny that right to children with special needs.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I did not interrupt Deputies. The principle of inclusion is now well established internationally. The comments of the Leader of the Opposition last year should have been a matter of considerable personal shame for him. In calling Deputy Kenny's comments "disgraceful", Deputy Ruairí Quinn reflected the views of enlightened educational experts around the world. It was hoped that Deputy...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The principle of inclusion was further promoted by the Council of Europe declaration in Malaga in 2003-----

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: -----and the Council of Europe action plan in 2006. Interrupting is the policy of Deputy Brian Hayes. I can arrange to do the same when he contributes.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The plan sought "to ensure that people with disabilities, including children, receive the support required, within the mainstream education system, to facilitate their effective education". The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability places a strong obligation on governments to provide inclusive education for all learners. It requires-----

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: -----states to ensure that "persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability" and that "persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality, free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live".

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: This Government has ensured that additional supports for children with special educational needs are in place in schools all over the country. Our policies and levels of investment have delivered additional teachers, additional care supports, specialist equipment and assistive technology, along with specially adapted school buildings and special school transport arrangements. I want to quash...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Every day, and in every school, pupils with mild general learning disability are being successfully educated in integrated settings. Earlier this year, I took the decision to close a number of special classes for pupils with mild general learning disability. This decision was taken because the pupil numbers in these classes were insufficient to merit the retention of the teacher based on my...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Some 19 other classes should have only one or two pupils.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Deputy Hayes needs to make up his mind. Just a few weeks ago, during Oral Questions he told me that he agreed with the policy of integration-----

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: -----but now, without any rationale, he is insisting that 128 classes be kept open. This is a cynical exercise by the Opposition seeking to make political capital-----

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: -----using children with special educational needs for political gain. The Opposition is lecturing the Government on the need to carefully manage public expenditure yet it is now saying that it would give a teacher to classes without any pupils.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: How many children are going to benefit from that approach? As I have said on many occasions, I am open to listening to the concerns of schools and that schools could make a case to keep those class. Only 40 of the 119 schools concerned have written to my Department seeking to retain their classes. My Department is currently reviewing these appeals and has listened to the concerns of the...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Children in these classes benefit from even lower pupil teacher ratios of 6:1.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I look forward to receiving the report of the review of special classes and special schools but I do not accept any criticism that my Department has moved ahead of this report. The closure of these classes is in line with departmental policy going back many years.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Some schools have opted voluntarily to stop the classes and integrate the children into an age-appropriate mainstream class.

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: These classes predated my Department's initiative to allocate additional learning teaching supports to schools to enable them to cater for the needs of pupils with high incidence special needs, including a mild general learning disability. My Department has always recognised that pupils with mild general learning disabilities may need additional teaching and care supports to enable them to...

Special Educational Needs: Motion. (6 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I am disappointed with the Opposition's motion.