Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Earlier this week Senator Fitzgerald raised the issue of special needs assistants in schools, with many Senators mentioning the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and the lack of support from the Government. This is a constitutional issue. Therefore, I invite schools and parents to take a constitutional case against the State to assert the right of children to primary education, including children with special needs. The idea of reducing support to a level that prohibits access to the curriculum for children with special needs is in clear breach of their constitutional rights. It echoes the debate we had during the discussion of the Disability Bill and the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill, both of which went back to the question of rights. All groups around the country wanted the right of children with special needs to primary education to be enshrined in law. That was not provided for them but there is enough in both Acts as passed by the Houses but not commenced by the Government to give this right to them. It is an absolute disgrace.

We are giving money to Haiti for all the best reasons while depriving special needs children in this country without an outcry from the media or anyone else. As public representatives, we have a responsibility to do something about this and to take the strongest possible line against it, making our views clear to the Government. The Leader said yesterday that the Minister for Education and Science would be happy to come into the House. There are a number of issues he should explain, of which this is one. What do we say to parents of children with special needs who are already dealing with a burden, a difficulty and a huge extra level of responsibility above and beyond what might generally be expected of a parent? We should be pulling out all the stops to support them rather than pulling back and leaving them without support.

I also agree on the points made about support for the Garda. Before our eyes we can see the polarisation of the North once more and extremist terrorists coming in. Those who are terrorists have no relationship whatsoever with the privileged description of "republican". Republicanism, established in this country by Wolfe Tone, is a clear common community of Catholic, Protestant and dissenter together. People who take up guns to shoot those who disagree with them, be it for religious or political reasons, have no place in republicanism. That is one side of the argument. The other side is that none of us thought we would ever see again a senior political party in the North playing the Orange card straight up for electoral reasons. I thought we had moved beyond that stage. It is shameful that the DUP is taking this line. There are problems on both sides and I cannot see how the Government or that of Britain will solve them. It was stated here yesterday that matters would have to be taken into the hands of the parties in the North, whereby groups such as the DUP would have to recognise they were dealing with the entire community all of the time. In that regard, it is good to hear Mr. Martin McGuinness saying he sees himself as responsible to the whole community. We need to see more of this.