Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Phelan. I commend the parents of children with special needs and their support organisations who have been making such determined efforts to ensure education rights for their children. I refer in particular to parents of children with autism, who have been telling their stories and making the demand for the most appropriate methods of education to be available equally to each and every child.

The Government has admitted that education for children with autism and other special needs is an area of historical under-provision. Improvements have been made in recent years but these cannot be stopped short now. The next step is to extend support to those applied behavioural analysis schools that require it and to make this form of education available to all children with autism who need it.

This is not a pro and anti-ABA argument. This is about ensuring every child with autism, as of right, has access to the forms of education most appropriate to his or her individual needs. It is about the ongoing failure of the State to meet these needs. Not every child with autism requires ABA but very many do and it is proven to result in significant improvements in their lives and their potential. One need only listen to their parents to see how important this is.

The Government has provided funding for 12 ABA schools. These schools were established by parents when there was little or no support from the State for the education of children with special needs. Now, the Minister wants to close the door on the development of further ABA schools. To justify this position the Minister and her Department are trying to play down the proven benefits of ABA.

Why has the Minister been blocking the development of more ABA schools? The need exists, the benefits of ABA have been proved and the trained teachers are in place. The only logical explanation for the Minister's position is that she and her Department believe that providing ABA for all who need it will be far too costly. However, in 2005, in reply to a Sinn Féin Private Members' motion on special needs education, the Minister stated: "The Minister for Finance is obliged to have due regard to the State's duty to provide for an education appropriate to the needs of every child under the Constitution and the necessity to provide equity of treatment for all children."

The Government is not meeting that obligation. As well as the refusal to fund new ABA facilities we have a continuing shortage of speech and language therapists. Children are not getting the essential fair diagnosis of their special needs or the full range of special education and therapies that can make such a major difference in their lives. As always, it is the children of more disadvantaged families who lose out as those lucky enough to be born into more prosperous homes have a better chance of accessing these services privately. This is a scandal that should not be tolerated.

It is shameful for this State to fight the Ó Cuanacháin family all the way to the courts and now pursue them for the costs. The same has happened, and is happening, to other families. Does the Government think it is a better way to use the State resources than to provide education for those children who need it?

The Government must allocate the resources required to meet special needs and equal rights for all. The deployment of teachers should be based on the right of the individual pupil to have his or her special education needs assessed and to the resources required to ensure each can reach his or her full potential.

I hope the Minister, her Department and her Government colleagues are listening carefully to evidence such as that provided during this debate and by others outside of this Chamber. If they change their position and provide the funding for these schools, no one will accuse them of a climbdown or a U-turn. It would be welcomed as a progressive development that can change the lives of thousands of children and their families for the better. I urge the Minister to do what is right.