Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I second the motion moved by Senator Healy Eames on behalf of the Fine Gael Party.

It is very wrong of the Minister to come to the House and accuse Senator Healy Eames of raising this issue for publicity reasons. That is far from the truth. She is raising this issue because these questions on special needs education are on everybody's lips, as the Minister well knows. People are asking the question raised by my colleague. If we are to have a policy of inclusion for children with special needs, why are the resources being rolled back? How will these children survive in mainstream education if they do not have these supports?

Everyone is aware of the economic situation and realises the pressure under which the Department finds itself. However, the questions raised by the row-back on special needs education are immense. They affect children and families throughout the country. It is reasonable for Senator Healy Eames to ask how children are going to cope in mainstream education, how diversity is managed and how language is to be managed if there are to be cutbacks. She also asked how schools will be managed if there are cuts to SNAs. How is the Minister planning to deal with this? Will there be other supports? She asked about the withdrawal of such supports and the impacts these will have on the overall quality of education. She asked when the advice of the National Council for Special Education on the issue will be published and about the timeframe for the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act.

She is not raising these questions for reasons of publicity. These are real questions about the future of our education system and the future of mainstreaming children with special educational needs-----