Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to speak on the motion relating to special needs. The motion states that real progress has been made, particularly in the past five or six years. When we examine the opportunities currently available to children with special needs to move into mainstream education, we can see that is the case. They can be integrated into schools and become involved both at primary and secondary level. Anyone who has had children attending school over the past ten or 12 years can see this. I speak from personal experience having seen a child pass through the system from junior infants class to fifth year in secondary school, without having received any additional support. That journey could not have happened but for the exceptional accommodation of the headmistress at that school who did whatever she could without receiving any additional resources. That child's journey proved to be a huge success story for the education system. It has been a journey of many challenges with despair at times, in addition to great joy.

It is instructive to see a child who has gone through normal education in the first and second years of primary school. At first, remedial teachers were employed and, as time went on, additional hours were provided with resource teachers. Later, there was more and more integration and co-operation between the service providers in the disability area, which were the Brothers of Charity, in addition to social workers, speech therapists, remedial and resource teachers and the school's headmistress.

The stage comes when it is time to move from the primary school model to the secondary cycle. Within the mainstream education system, teachers and school principals were identified who were prepared to take a chance by moving ahead of the catch-up system that has been undertaken in the past couple of years. It is great to see the difference for children who are attending primary school now. From junior infants onwards, assistance is provided immediately, although it may not be enough. I am not going to claim that the system is perfect because it is not. There are challenges but they must be examined in the context of what is happening daily in schools around the country. More and more children have opportunities due to the commitment of principals, teachers, parents, officials and other professionals in the disability sector.

When people who have a special needs relative with Down's syndrome or another disability, perhaps aged 35 or 40, they look at similar 18 or 19 years olds and say, "Look at the difference. Look at the life they have available to them. If only it had been like that for us 30 years ago".

I realise the challenges that parents of special needs children will face but I also know how different it is for them and how much more opportunities their children will have. The Minister must take on board what is happening in the classroom, however. Hopefully, special educational needs organisers throughout the country will be able to address the matter. Teachers have to face such issues in the classroom but many of them have not been trained how to deal with aspects of disability. They do not know, for example, how to deal with one or two children who have a special set of needs. Special needs assistants may be available to those children. Where there is a refugee population, children may have language difficulties because their first language is not English. In fact, they may not be able to speak English at all. A teacher facing a class of 20 or 25 children, depending on the area, will have to face a whole spectrum of challenges every day. Teachers need more support in order to be able to play a leadership role in the classroom. They also need guidance and direction from the Department to be able to do so.

While improvements have occurred, the greatest difficulties facing parents of children starting school is that they are not aware of what services are available. They have to know what they can or cannot do and what they can expect. In addition to the challenge of bringing up a child with special needs, there is the additional challenge of wondering whether one has to fight the system. We should not have to fight for everything we want. I appeal to the Minister and to the Department in that respect. We should know what is available and should not have to waste energy in demanding such things, which should be available by right.