Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan. This significant Bill is very welcome. Following its publication, the Bill was debated at length among various organisations, at the Joint Committee on Education and Science and during its passage in the Dáil. One of the greatest challenges to our education system down through the years and in recent times is the inability to respond to children with special educational needs.

Educationalists, policy makers, Governments, Ministers, consultants and teachers have all subscribed to the principle of providing equality of educational opportunity, providing equality of access to the best available services in education and providing equality of opportunity to every child in the State to reach his or her potential. Article 42 of the Constitution, to which Members referred, asserts the rights of children to such equality of treatment. Legislation, resources and various mechanisms have been targeted at these inequalities with varying degrees of success. In fairness, pilot projects were put in place, such as special classes in mainstream schools. I recall being involved on the periphery of two of these classes in an inner-city school ten minutes walk from Leinster House during the 1970s. There were special schools dedicated to particular disability groups and remedial services were put in place for children on the margins of disability. With the greatest of respect to all the professionals involved, expertise was scarce, both in the Department and on the ground, and up to this day there are major lacunae. Resources in many cases were even scarcer. There was very poor planning, little or no co-ordination and, by today's standards, it was a hit and miss service, existing as the Cinderella of the primary education service.

In more recent times, and particularly since 1997, the service has been transformed. The changes that have come about reflect a more holistic, enlightened, mature, determined and targeted approach to the widely varying forms of educational disability. The level and quality of response through education to children at risk of being marginalised and suffering disadvantage has been spectacular, even if it is still inadequate.