Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Teastaíonn uaim ceist a ardú ar luaigh mé ar an Ord Gnó sa Teach seo ar 6 Feabhra. I raise an issue which I mentioned briefly during the Order of Business on 6 February. It is estimated that approximately 25% of students have special educational needs of one kind or another. Legislation envisages the provision of individual educational plans, IEPs, for many of these children. These are written plans prepared for a student specifying the learning goals to be achieved over a set period, as well as teaching strategies, support and resources necessary to achieve those goals. The value of these plans is accepted and they are implemented across the world including in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004, or EPSEN Act, includes a requirement for schools to provide an individualised education plan for students with special needs. However, this section of the Act has not been commenced 14 years after it was passed by these Houses. The National Council for Special Education developed guidelines on the provision of individual education plans in 2006, which is now 12 years ago.

In response to a Parliamentary Question on 4 December, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, told the Dáil:

There is currently not a statutory requirement for schools to provide a mandatory Individual Education Plan for children with special needs. [...]

However, all schools are encouraged to use some form of educational planning for the delivery of additional teaching, or care supports, for children with special educational needs [...]

My Department's Inspectorate's advice is that the majority of schools are now using some form of education planning for children with special educational needs.

Despite the Oireachtas passing a law requiring schools to implement these plans 14 years ago, this remains to be commenced or brought into force. The position, as the Minister told the Dáil, is that we are relying on the goodwill of teachers and the ability of individual schools to implement individual education plans from their own resources. This state of affairs changed before Christmas when the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, ASTI, issued advice to its members not to implement IEPs due to a lack of adequate resourcing. A circular to its members on 18 December 2018:

In view of the fact that IEPs have not commenced under the EPSEN Act, ASTI members are advised not to implement IEPs or equivalents [...].

The ASTI is extremely concerned that in the context of insufficient resourcing and the lack of a sustainable model for the delivery of all aspects of the EPSEN Act [...]

The ASTI rejects the imposition of a special education needs model which takes no account of the time, workload and practical implications for teachers and schools.

I understand that the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, has given similar advice to its members. While the ASTI made clear that this would not affect any existing plans in place, this is nonetheless very worrying. How is it defensible that 14 years after the passage of the 2004 Act that IEPs have not been given force of law? How can it be acceptable that the teachers themselves feel that they cannot provide these plans due to a lack of resources? We are all aware of the seeming inability of some Departments to manage public finances in a prudent way, causing massive potential waste of Exchequer resources. It would be horrible to think that this would be one area that would suffer the downstream consequences of such mismanagement. I would be grateful if the Minister of State could give me any assurance today that that is not the case. I would be grateful if she could give me a response that goes further and offers more than the Minister's response in the Dáil some months ago.