Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. The Labour Party is happy to support this motion and its call on Government to implement fully the National Council for Special Education recommendations for the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004.

The proposers of the motion have outlined in great detail its background and why it is needed. I do not intend to go over that again but want to make some general points in support. The NCSE at the time of writing its implementation plan for the Act identified significant gaps between what should be as per the vision of the Act and what the reality of special educational needs in Ireland was at that time. Some of these are as follows: schools are under-resourced in terms of capacity to deliver inclusive education; there is insufficient investment in training and development at all levels; institutional and systematic support for schools in regard to inclusive education provision are inadequate; boards of management, school leadership and parents are not sufficiently involved nor are they adequately informed or trained or supported to play an effective part; not all schools are inclusive; and there are numerous soft barriers to access. I will return to that last gap later. Eleven other gaps are referred to in that report which I will not go through. However, a measure of progress in this area would be an evaluation of how well these gaps have been closed. Senator O'Toole outlined how little has been achieved and how few of these gaps have been closed.

A motion was debated by the INTO at its recent conference in which it demanded that in the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, the Department of Education and Science must ensure that appropriate in-service training is available to all teachers on a whole-school basis; substitute cover is provided on a systematic basis for all teachers engaged in planning and meetings related to the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act requirements; all schools are covered by a comprehensive educational psychological service; administrative and information and communications technology facilities to schools are expanded to cater for the additional requirements under the Act; children have immediate access to the relevant health and educational professionals as identified for their needs; and an additional post of responsibility of special educational needs should be provided. This suggests to me that teachers at the frontline believe many of these gaps still exist and require immediate attention.

I acknowledge this report was presented to the Minister only in October 2006 — 18 months ago — and that everything cannot be achieved overnight but significant progress should have been made in such a period if a serious effort was being made to deliver on the requirements. Almost one third of the planned implementation time has elapsed. As I said, I look forward to the Minister of State's response in this regard.

I wish to raise another matter. Resources allocated for the phased implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act should not be at the expense of essential funding to improve the pupil-teacher ratio and other educational issues. The Minister often defends her lack of progress on the matter of the said ratios by stating that she has concentrated on special needs education. Neither of these issues is being progressed quickly enough. Both these matters must be dealt with. Adequate funding must be delivered by this Government to achieve both objectives. In this regard, the NCSE argues that the funding envelope proposed should not divert monies from mainstream education given Government's commitment to additionality.

I turn briefly to one of the gaps referred to earlier. Not all schools are inclusive and there are numerous soft barriers to access. It is of great concern to me that many schools are refusing to enrol pupils with special needs. This cannot be allowed to continue. Many of these are in the fee-paying sector but many, including some in my constituency of Dublin North, are not. There is wholesale discrimination against children with special educational needs and it must be brought to an end. A Department audit on this matter has been carried out and that report is with the Minister. Comments attributed to the Minister in the media suggest that the report confirms the anecdotal knowledge we have picked up. I know from media reports that the Minister is not in favour of publishing the report but I believe these schools must be dealt with in some way.

Schools are using such methods as examinations and interviews to exclude special educational needs students. It is being suggested to parents of special educational needs children that their son or daughter will not fit in. There should be some sanctions against such schools but so far there is none. Some people have called for the publication of the report but I accept that publicly naming them might lead to a drift in their direction rather than having the desired opposite effect. However, I call on the Minister to put in place urgently a penalty system to deal with this matter.

The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 is great legislation and, as Senator O'Toole said, was supported by all parties when it went through the Houses. However, it must be fully resourced and implemented within the planned timeline of five years or less, if possible, so it can deliver the educational outcomes children with special needs and their parents are entitled to as of right. Time has been lost and it must be made up.