Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

I am also sympathetic to the views expressed by Senator Ulick Burke. Any Member who has dealt with children with special needs in public life or professionally in education will know that 99% of what the Senator outlined is very true. We have all come face to face with such situations.

If the Bill is to mean anything, its text must address the significant lacuna the existence of which has been so cogently articulated by Senator Ulick Burke. There has been a complete lack of co-ordination of services allowing State organisations to opt out of their responsibilities over the years by too frequent buck-passing. It is with sadness that we must recognise the truth of the scenario depicted by Senator Ulick Burke. While professional teachers, child psychologists and therapists were aware of needs, there was no structure in place and no law to compel them to come together with a single focus. There was no mechanism to knock heads together. A focus on the interests, well-being and benefit of the child was required rather than the stand-off scenarios which developed, motivated perhaps by professional pride among other issues.

If ever a Bill was drafted to confront this unacceptable scenario, it is the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003 which sets out to do so clearly and unambiguously by establishing the national council for special education. While I do not wish to be too anecdotal, I remember that in the early 1980s, Senator O'Rourke, the then Fianna Fáil spokesperson on education, asked me to prepare a paper on special and remedial education. I availed of the services in 1986 of an eminent national expert on special education, Eamon Ó Murchú, a primary teacher. The genesis of what we handed to the then Deputy O'Rourke, who was the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on education, was a proposal to establish a national council for special education, specifically for the purpose outlined in the guidelines she handed to me when I decided to carry out this research. Therefore, this proposal was put forward before 1986. I agree with Senator Ulick Burke it is now time to co-ordinate these services. Given that the Minister provided for the establishment of a national council in this Bill, it must be seen to do the work it is assigned. One of the most challenging tasks it will face is to bring about a co-ordination of services, the need for which was strongly articulated by Senators Ulick Burke, Ryan and Cox.

The genesis of what will be a new era in terms of the co-ordination of these services is contained in the terms of reference, role and functions of the national council. If it is perceived in the not too distant future that those functions are not adequate to deal with and confront the inadequacies in the co-ordination of the services among the various professionals and Departments, I agree with Senator Ulick Burke that we will have to amend the role and functions of the council to give it more teeth to ensure that relevant professionals operate in a co-ordinated way. Irrespective of whether we are talking about children who are in pre-school, primary school, secondary school, or those over 18 years of age, the scenario that sadly has existed up to now should not be allowed to exist for one more day in view of what is possible.

While I agree with 99% of what Senator Ulick Burke said, as Senator Cox articulated earlier, an extra body is not required to bring this about. We must ensure the council which is provided for in the Bill is given the requisite powers to implement the necessary degree of co-ordination.