Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today I want to raise the announcement of a public consultation on the EPSEN Act, of which I am hugely in favour. The EPSEN Act deals with education for persons with special educational needs. The Minister said she wants that Act to be up to date, operational, and reflective of the lived experience of children with special education needs, because we are not meeting their needs at the moment. We have to find a way to cater for the growing needs that exist. I welcome what Dr. Niall Muldoon, as Ombudsman for Children, said in June. He said, "Any failure to include children with special education needs within the mainstream school system for any other reason than to facilitate their effective education constitutes discrimination."

That is the bar that we as a Government must set when it comes to special education needs. I know we are trying to do that, but it is going to take resources and ongoing reform.We have a duty to do that. I want to raise on behalf of parents, organisations and advocates issues that I come across on a weekly basis, including admissions policies that put a set date on when a child has to leave a special class. Children are being told they must meet a certain developmental milestone by an arbitrary date. That is not right.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, provides special education information based on the EPSEN Act. It refers to having an inclusive environment in a mainstream school, where it is appropriate, but does not talk about the community. An inclusive place must mean that children are catered for in their community and do not take school transport to areas far from where they live.

It is brilliant we have had the section 37A reforms and the Minister is moving towards a system of better forward planning. When it comes to the process, however, a special educational needs organiser, SENO, is there to provide information on where places are and it is up to the parents to secure places in a special class. The system is upside down. It should be the responsibility of the Department, the NCSE or the SENO to find the place and not leave it up to parents to apply to school after school, with all of the forms and processes that go with that, and end up without a school place in their community at the end of it. We should take that pressure away from parents.

I look forward to this consultation. We should have a debate on it in this House.