Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy Seán Haughey, to the Chamber. I assure him of an especially warm welcome when he comes to Listowel next week to attend a very important educational function.

As the concluding speaker on the Government side of the House, much of what I would like to have said has been said more than eloquently by previous speakers. I compliment all the Senators who have contributed because we have had a good and meaningful debate during which everyone gave a good and honest opinion. The debate here has been in marked contrast to the debate that has taken place elsewhere, both in the other House and the media. Our Minister and the Department have been subjected to unfair and ill-informed criticism. If one listened closely to the Minister in the House today, one would have discovered that she did not say that she knows all the answers. Nobody has all the answers but she is addressing this question and trying to bring it forward in a way that will be beneficial ultimately to the child with learning difficulties. That is what we all subscribe to.

The statistics over the past ten years are staggering. The fact that €900 million has been dedicated to special needs teaching this year, along with 19,000 staff members, is staggering as well. The speakers on the Opposition side have been gracious enough to acknowledge this. I take issue with Senator Alex White, however, who feels that the level and speed of progress has been somewhat tardy. I was a teacher for 20 years in the 1970s and 1980s at both primary and secondary level. I witnessed at first hand the significant improvements that have taken place.

A member of my family had a daughter who was highly intelligent but had special learning difficulties. There was no service in the education system at the time for my niece. Her parents were forced to move and live at different times in London and the US to ensure she was given the education she needed and was entitled to. Luckily, they had the resources to do this but many people in Ireland did not and the service, as Senator Alex White noted, was very inadequate.

We have moved on from that to a stage where we are getting there. As Senator Ormonde said, we have not arrived but we are getting closer all the time. In my home town of Listowel, which is not large, more than a dozen special education teachers provide specialist services of one sort or another. The Department and Minister had the vision to fund a special school, the Nano Nagle special national school, which is a significant teaching resource for Kerry and Limerick. It is a state-of-the-art facility. The improvements are there and must be acknowledged.

I will not go into the ins and outs of whether applied behavioural analysis is the answer at this hour. Like everyone else, I have tried to read about and address it. If one wishes to see all the various viewpoints, one need only look up a few webpages on the Internet. For every view that ABA is the way forward, there are views that say "yes but" or "yes maybe". I know it is the first choice of parents to have their children integrated into the mainstream as much as possible.

I pay tribute to the teachers of Ireland, particularly primary school teachers and members of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, for the outstanding service they have provided. A statement this morning from John Carr, the general secretary of the INTO, refuted some criticisms levelled at the INTO position on autism. I refer all Members to this statement because it is eminently sensible. There is no substitute for a good teacher who is not able to do everything but who will not be beaten when it comes to doing what is best for a student. Naturally, they need special skills, back-up and all the resources for which we are looking.