Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 4, paragraph (c), to delete line 10.

I welcome the Minister. The amendment has to do with the precise responsibilities of the Minister for Education and Skills in supporting students who face particular issues and are disadvantaged.

The amendment seeks to reverse the proposal to delete section 2(1)(f) of the 1998 Act. Were this provision to stand, the deletion would have the effect of removing the Minister's responsibility for providing various student supports, speech therapy in particular.

Amendment No. 4 proposes to delineate the measures in paragraph (n) to exclude any responsibility on the Minister's part for health and personal social services within the meaning of the Health Act 2004. This is at odds with the Minister's obligation under section 13 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 to provide resources for "the preparation and implementation of education plans prepared in respect of children with special educational needs" with the objective of ensuring these children have the same rights to an appropriate education as their peers.

In its broadest and most important dimension, education is about supporting human beings during their most important phase of development. One cannot separate what we traditionally understand as being contained within the notion of education, that is, academic instruction and the formation of ideas and values, from the notion of cura personalis. Each individual faces a different set of life circumstances and challenges. For this reason, our educational architecture places a duty of the Minister to ensure that, consistent with the means available to him, students facing particular circumstances are supported. This touches on a range of issues, including speech therapy.

The combined legislation provides for the interconnection of the roles of the Ministers for Education and Skills and Health, the HSE and the health authorities generally in the delivery of the services required by pupils. I do not understand why the approach adopted in the legislation is to remove the problem, as it were, from the Minister for Education and Skills. This is a stilted view of education. We are moving from a situation where the Minister must see to it that students have everything they need to one where he or his successors must not become involved in the provision of the health and personal social services that are seen to be the responsibility of the Department of Health and the health service. This is the opposite of joined-up thinking. Responsibility needs to remain with both Ministers. On this basis, I propose that we delete line 10 and forgo the proposed substitution of wording in paragraph (n).