Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I wholly support the Sinn Féin motion. Across the country, there are thankless parents who have to fight tooth and nail to get access to education for their children. As was mentioned already, a child's right to education is enshrined in our Constitution. There must be equal access to education for children with disabilities. In Cavan and Monaghan, people have to travel for multiple hours to bring their children to school as there is no special educational class closer to home.

The programme for Government has committed to ensuring that each child with a special educational need has access to an appropriate school place. This is commendable, but I hope that these promises are, in fact, brought to fruition in time for parents who are worried about having a school place for their child in September. Parents are being told the importance of early intervention in significantly improving outcomes for children by fostering cognitive, social and emotional development, and yet these parents who are seeking this support find themselves being failed at every turn.We need to place particular emphasis on the recruitment and training of teachers and SNAs to ensure they are equipped to meet the needs of students in special education classes. Without educational professionals, we simply cannot honour the fundamental right of every child to access education.

As we are all aware, there are teacher shortages and this undoubtedly has an impact on the provision of special education. There needs to be a multifaceted approach that targets issues such as the availability of housing and the cost of living, and in order to provide a high standard of education and cater for a range of diverse needs, we need to ensure that teachers and SNAs can afford to live and pay for accommodation.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for the opportunity to speak today.