Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

There are individual disparities, difficulties and imbalances within that service but overall that has been the thrust of this development.

I pay tribute to two groups which made a significant contribution to promoting awareness of children with special needs and disabilities, to asserting their right to equal treatment and to realising their potential. Enabling children with special needs to reach their full potential is at the heart of the service. I commend their parents and the voluntary groups who have been to the fore in fighting beside the parents and lobbying for these rights for many years. I also commend the teachers and other professionals who have worked so hard to provide a meaningful response to these special needs, very often over the terms of various Governments with meagre or almost no resources. I saw this at first hand during the 1970s and into the early 1980s. I especially compliment the 54 organisations and individuals representing these children's needs who made detailed written submissions to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science concerning this Bill. Senator Ulick Burke was extremely active in responding to those submissions. The oral presentations were equally illuminating and provided me and other members of the committee with invaluable insights in considering the Bill. I readily concede that my few modest words are the fruit of deliberations on some of the exchanges in the committee.

While the rights of all our children are clearly enshrined in Article 42 of the Constitution, the Equal Status Act 2000 and the Education Act 1998 vindicated those rights in law but despite that vindication, constitutional and legislative, there was one large lacuna. The service lacked a structure to guarantee those rights. The word "guaranteed" has irritated Senator Ulick Burke and prompted many questions, some of which I hope to respond to later. This Bill addresses that lacuna through the establishment of the national council for special education. For the first time the special needs education service is being provided with a framework within which the education of these children can be guaranteed as a right enforceable in law. Senator Ulick Burke is concerned about resources and whether the Bill is rights-based, another issue that has prompted serious discussion. This is a central issue guaranteeing a right enforceable in law which has preoccupied parents, voluntary groups, politicians, Ministers, consultants, various others and the courts. We are all aware of it and I will not bore Senators with the details. It is a central and fundamental issue which has been much discussed since publication of the Bill.

The Minister of State has outlined the services which the Bill provides, such as the national council for special education, a planning process for individual education plans and a central role for parents in every step of the process, assessment procedures, resources, rights and reviews of plans. The Minister of State and Senator Ulick Burke have commented on the necessity to have such reviews at regular intervals. The duties of schools and principals is key in the Bill. The Minister of State and Senator Ulick Burke covered in detail the appeals and mediation procedures. The role of health boards is also crucial because it refers specifically to a targeted and co-ordinated approach which was markedly absent until recently. It also refers to the five-year lead in time for implementation.

Issues were raised on all of those topics and concerns were raised on most of them following publication of the Bill and during its lengthy passage through the other House. Many representative groups expressed concern about the availability of funding and the question of resources versus rights, which are not mutually exclusive. I hope to show that in this Bill, as amended in the Dáil, there is no such thing as mutual exclusivity in this regard. The rights-based commitment about which so many are concerned will flow from section 13. This section is a landmark development in answering these concerns and is quite revolutionary in the history of legislation.