Alan Kelly (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I hope he does not have as difficult a week this week as he has had in the past two weeks. However, from the telephone calls I have been receiving I somehow doubt it. This is a very important motion and the Labour Party is proud to bring it before the House. I am very proud to second it. The motion is about protecting the most vulnerable in society, our children and particularly those children who, unfortunately, have various forms of disabilities.

The budget was a sign of things to come. While the families of these children are facing into a very difficult Christmas, with the modus operandi of the Government and the manner in which it is targeting vulnerable people, my concern is that things will get worse. I can only laugh at the Government's amendment to the motion. I can only laugh at its commitments and the way it is back-slapping itself over what it has given in recent years. However, I will return to that point.

I will go through the various elements of the budget later. I must ask why the Government picked on the most vulnerable. Why did it not consider other forms of revenue that could have been generated through, for example, mortgage interest relief? It should have considered the multiple tax breaks, private hospitals and various other possible sources of revenue that surely would have been more appropriate than the areas we will itemise today. Households are being left to pay more for fewer services with the distinct likelihood in many families that less income will be coming in in the first place. I do not believe Fianna Fáil understands this. If it did, this shambles of a budget with its 30 cuts would not have been introduced. Given the manner in which it has done that, it is clear it has fallen completely out of touch with real people's needs.

These families will need to pay more for education. I have spoken to teachers, members of boards of management and parents who cannot understand the Government's decisions in this area. It is beyond belief that the Government has targeted these children. In its election manifesto it promised to reduce class sizes from 30:1 in 2002 to 24:1 in 2007. It has now increased class sizes to 28:1. I am sure we will see how people feel about that matter later tonight. We now have the highest class sizes in the EU, which shows the Government is willing to make children and their teachers suffer for its complete mismanagement of the economy in recent years.

Teachers are very upset about this development, which I fully understand. Teaching is a vocation. These teachers are dedicated to their children. They have relationships with them and build trust with them. In particular those looking after children with special needs do not just feel they are losing their jobs, but through no fault of their own they are letting down those children. It is not their fault. It is the Government's fault. It is certainly not the fault of the teachers who are very dedicated to their jobs. We in the Labour Party totally abhor these cuts and as Senators will find out tonight we intend to fight them to the end. The increase in school transport costs was a cynical ploy that slipped in under the radar. However, as it will affect families with multiple children the cost is coming increasingly to attention.

Children are also affected by the increases in health care costs at all levels. Obviously children use health care to a greater degree than other members of society. Families will experience cuts in tax relief for medical expenses. Children go to hospital disproportionately to others. There are increases in accident and emergency unit charges, long-stay charges, hospital bed fees, medical insurance costs etc. There is one caveat on which I would like some analysis by the Minister of State. How will the increase in accident and emergency unit charges affect the co-operative medical practices we encourage people to attend rather than clog up accident and emergency departments? Has evidence been provided to the Government that the charges applied by these co-operatives could increase in parallel with the increase in accident and emergency department charges? I worry about this. These families are also being targeted through the social welfare system with child benefit being scrapped for children aged over 18 and the early child care supplement scrapped when children reach 5.5 years.

The Government has targeted children with disabilities. Members of my family and I have worked with children with disabilities for a long time and I am passionate about this issue because I abhor what the Government has done. Children with disabilities should have access to mainstream education for as long as possible and it should be a fundamental right. They should be kept within the education system for as long as possible in order that they are included as much as possible in society. Why are they being targeted by reducing the budget for resource teaching? It is beyond my comprehension.

The increase in class sizes will disproportionately affect children with disabilities. I have been approached by schools in my area over the past few weeks. They are begging parents to keep their children in the schools in order that they can retain resource teachers who contribute so much. It is scary that in 2008 we have reached this point. Children with disabilities need more, not less, empowerment and they need to be given an opportunity in life. I deplore the deferral of the EPSEN Act. Children need the plans provided for under it at all costs. Every child requires a customised education plan and the failure to implement this provision must be reversed. While the Minister for Education and Science has not stated he will defer the Act, the reality is he has not indicated a date for its implementation. He might come back to the House on that. The Government needs to state it will honour the implementation of the Act. Children with disabilities will not acquire the customised education plans nor will they be allowed to participate fully in society unless the Government changes its mind.

I also deplore the 1% reduction in funding for voluntary disability bodies. In addition to inflation and the 1% reduction in HSE funding, this will have a drastic impact on them. Furthermore, I deplore the abolition of the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education. Will the Minister of State outline in detail how the centre's work will be subsumed, which body will take over and how efficient it will be?

Most of all, I deplore the changes the Government proposes regarding the allowances for children with disabilities aged between 16 and 18. This was sneaked in in the budget and it is only receiving the exposure it deserves now. I recently attended a meeting of North Tipperary Community and Voluntary Association, CAVA, an excellent organisation in my constituency, which also has a disability forum. I outlined the changes proposed in the budget and this change hit home the most. Children aged between 16 and 18 whose disabilities restrict them from working are currently paid a weekly allowance of €197, which was increased in the budget to €204 per week for those over 18. However, the budget raised the age for receipt of the allowance from 16 to 18. In the meantime, the age limit for the domiciliary care allowance, worth €299 a month, which is paid to families of children with disabilities has been raised to 18. This masks the reality of a significant negative change in the income of these families annually of almost €7,000. How is a family meant to survive? Families used this money to bypass the two-year waiting lists for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and so on and that is why the amendment to the motion is laughable. There is a two-year waiting list in north Tipperary and half the speech and language posts are vacant. It is laughable that the Government could table this amendment.

I am delighted to second the motion and I ask all Members to support it to protect those who are most vulnerable in our society, in particular, children with disabilities.