Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

—notes the commitment of the Government to developing and extending special education facilities;

—acknowledges real progress has been made in the area of special needs education including the significant legislative achievement of the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004;

—congratulates the Government on the significant additional resources provided since 1997 for the education of pupils with special educational needs;

—commends the Government for the legislative and administrative measures to improve the framework within which services are delivered to pupils with special educational needs, their parents and schools;

—welcomes the establishment of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, on a statutory basis in line with the commitment in the Government's programme;

—supports the Government's initiative in progressing a North-South centre for excellence to serve the needs of persons with autism in both jurisdictions on this island;

—recognises that there are over 4,000 more teachers in our primary schools and over 2000 in our post-primary schools than there were in 1997;

—acknowledges that these extra teaching resources have been used to reduce class sizes, to tackle educational disadvantage and to provide additional support for children with special needs;

—notes that the Government is committed to reducing further class sizes and welcomes the recent announcement of the Minister for Education and Science that more targeted supports will be provided across the education system under the new action plan for tackling educational disadvantage; and

—welcomes too the announcement that this will involve an additional annual investment of €40 million and the provision of some 300 additional posts across the education system generally.

Fáiltím roimh an Aire agus tréaslaím í leis an tús maith atá déanta aici. Tá mé ag tnúth le sárobair agus forbairtí ciallmhara uaithi. Is ábhar sásaimh dom labhairt ar an rún seo le haitheantas a thabhairt don Rialtas as an méid atá déanta aige ar son oideachais, go háirithe ar son oideachais do scoláirí agus míbhuntáistí acu. Níl aon dabht ná go bhfuil níos mó déanta ar reachtaíocht oideachasúil ag an Rialtas ná mar a rinne na Rialtais uilig ó bunaíodh an Stát. Tá cearta anois ag lucht míbhuntáiste. Níl ag brath ar charthanacht nó ar fhláithiúlacht óéinne, tá cearta dlíthiúil acu ar oideachas agus ar fhorbairt pearsanta agus níl ansin ach mar ba cheart. Níl mé ag maíomh faoin méid atá déanta ag an Rialtas ach tá mé ag tabhairt aitheantais don dea-obair agus an saothar inmholta atá déanta le linn réim an Rialtais seo.

I know that after that eulogy the Minister will say, "We are not there yet." She is right. I commend her for the fact that in the few months since she took over as Minister she has shown from the outset that she is enthusiastic about and acknowledges the challenges ahead, just as she compliments the achievements made and the success and progress reached over the past six or seven years.

This debate is appropriate because the Minister is new to the Department of Education and Science, though no stranger to the subject. The debate is timely because in those few months the Minister has brought many new initiatives to bear on the two vital and challenging areas of educational disadvantage and special educational needs. These have been vital and vexed questions for many decades for successive Governments. I regret that while it has been the laudable aspiration of Governments, Ministers, educationalists and teachers over those years that we provide equality of educational opportunity for all our children. However, because of lack of resources and expertise this has often only been an aspiration, and delivery, unfortunately and regrettably in many cases, is better not dwelt on.

The Minister has already focused attention on these two areas. She has set initiatives in train and has announced the launch of an action plan on educational disadvantage. We look forward to the detail of that plan and, if possible, I will comment on it this evening.

I wish to comment on the achievements made to date in these two challenging areas. Since 1997 there has been a transformation in the delivery of service and resources. More fundamentally, there has been a transformation in the delivery of legislation to bring rights, enablement and empowerment to children with special educational needs, their parents and representative groups. In that context it is appropriate to compliment the parents who through the years espoused the rights of their children through thick and thin and gained the support of their representative groups.

Before I go into the details, I compliment my colleague, the Leader of the House, Senator O'Rourke. I had the privilege a few years to act as her backup in the Dáil and I recall she strongly pushed the idea of a national council for special education.