Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I have experienced this problem. My child is undergoing speech therapy. Since she must travel 12 miles, she loses half of a school day going there and coming back. We are delighted to have the therapy because without it, she would not learn. Her speech issue blocks learning. She is on par as a result of receiving the service, but she is one of the lucky ones. Many children, perhaps with autism, do not have speech therapy services. Those services should be provided in a school setting.

The non-implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act is a failure. In the past week, a Galway city school told me that it received a letter stating that its pupils with special educational needs will have their needs met on a non-statutory basis. That is a joke. It means that there will be no service because the SENO, which has become known as the "Say No", can say that resources do not allow for it. The Government is leaving the taxpayer and the State open to lawsuits.

The management bodies contacted me to tell me that the announcement of the Act's deferral indicates the Government's disregard towards special education. The importance of the integration of the legislation with that of the Disability Act appears to have been ignored. Schools will be left without the protection of this legislation when children present with needs defined under the Disability Act. It is regrettable that the first response of the Government in a financial crisis is to deny the rights of yet another vulnerable group.

I am pleased Senator Boyle is in the Chamber because his vote will be critical on this issue. We will soon see whether the Green Party will adhere to its commitment to a reduction in class sizes. I agree with the Labour Party motion that class size is an essential ingredient for both teachers and students. Moves to increase class sizes by Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats are intensely damaging to all our children and to our nation's future. They are particularly damaging to children with disabilities. While there is some provision for dedicated classes, the majority of children with disabilities spend most of their time in mainstream classes with inadequate add-on learning support and resource classes.

I heard the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, speaking on "Drivetime" yesterday about the gains made in education in the past ten years. His figures are highly suspect because he did not acknowledge growth in population and the decline in education investment as a percentage of gross domestic product. However, even taking the Minister on good faith, the gains made in the past ten years do not help today's children. Each child's education is and must be a personal experience for him or her, leading to his or her personal and educational growth, not one based on how others did in previous years. The record of the past two Government terms is nothing to write home about. Some 18% to 20% of children drop out before the leaving certificate, indicating significant underachievement at second level. In 2000, 10% of children left primary school unable to read. In 2008, 5,000 students failed ordinary level maths in the leaving certificate. Our levels of proficiency in maths and science are below average on the PISA scales. Increasing the pupil-teacher ratio from 27 to 28 is merely the thin end of the wedge.

One of the most awful cutbacks in this budget is the cap on the number of English language support teachers at two per school. Representatives of Mervue national school, in which 183 foreign national children are enrolled, are in the Gallery today. Also in the Gallery are representatives of Claddagh national school which has 125 foreign national students. When it comes to the standardised test results next spring, foreign national children will come in at the bottom of the ladder, pushing native Irish children out of learning support. This will amount to an incitement to hatred. With resources being denied to children with special education needs, foreign nationals will be blamed.