Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the improvements in services in this area. I speak as a parent and a long-time advocate of disability services.

While this is not meant as a criticism, I am irked by the fact special educational needs organisers, SENOs, are overruling far more qualified clinicians, clinical psychologists and educational psychologists when it comes to the provision of services. I had a case recently concerning an educational aid for a child, an iPad. He had received a glowing report from the educational psychologist but it was overruled by the SENO. Thankfully, that case has been sorted.

Any manner which ensures services are more coherent is positive. I believe the starting age in the education system for a child is when he or she enters preschool at the age of three. We have children in preschools with challenging behaviour getting six hours of special education support services. This is provided by the Health Service Executive. Once a child enters the educational system, as Senator Averil Power stated, there should be a line from start to finish which they follow as part of the education process. As the Minister knows, a child with special needs requires 24 hours, seven days a week support.

The managers and providers of preschool services may identify a need for dealing with challenging behaviour which the parents may not have noted themselves or accepted. There are children who may not be allowed to avail of preschool because they may not have a support for dealing with challenging behaviour and the service provider may not be able to deal with the matter. Service providers are passionate about what they do. They are not looking for supports that are not a necessity but this area has to be addressed. Moneys in the Department of Health should be transferred to the Department of Education and Skills for it to provide such supports in any school. When I get the figures together, I will write to the Minister on it. No one in society should be denied the right to go to preschool because they cannot get the special education support services they need. If we do not highlight these anomalies in the system, no one else will do so. Education should start at preschool right through to the end. It must be about the child’s ability, not their disability. This must be done through the one Department. I have already spoken to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, who provides some funding in this area too.I propose we streamline children's movement into primary school and further streamline it when they go into second and third level education. There should be one channel. I will do anything I can to make that happen and will advise the Minister where I can get the information.

I was in the audience when the Minister gave her speech at the INTO conference. It was an absolute pleasure to hear her. I was a bit reluctant about attending and maybe we were all reluctant due to other events. The reception the Minister received and the quality of her speech were excellent and I am not a man for saying something that I do not mean. I spent five hours at the event and it was a great event to attend. Beforehand, I thought we would have to run in one door and out another. That was not the case and it was a good event.