George Lawlor Urges Person-Centred Education for Special Needs

Thank you, Minister. People feel that the lack of school places means that places are being just thrown at them. These are not my words, these are the words of the manager of the collective sensory group, Shauna King, who works closely with families and children in this area. What children need are appropriate places, but that's certainly not always the case. Often we see children in autism classes when in fact this is a wholly inappropriate setting for them. A child can have autism and an intellectual disability, and in many instances these children require places in special needs classes. But also they need an appropriate places without having the need to spend an inordinate amount of time getting to and from their schools. What is absolutely needed for these children is person-centered access, and that's the key to everything. Person-centered where a child may have autism and an intellectual disability. It's not just about access to a place, which we all know is hugely difficult to secure anyway, it's also about the quality of life for students, the children. Many children have complex medical needs, many children have an intellectual disability, and yet we feel that once we have placed them into a class, no matter what their needs, we declare that we have met those needs even though they may not be in an environment that is conducive to their well-being. In County Wexford, we have just two special needs schools, St. Patrick's Special School in Enniscorthy and Our Lady of Fatima School in Wexford Town. And despite the wonderful efforts of the principals of these schools, Lee Rogers in St. Patrick's Special School in Enniscorthy and Glenda McKeown in Our Lady of Fatima School in Wexford Town, these schools are hugely under pressure, hugely oversubscribed, with little or no capacity to increase. In Our Lady of Fatima we have children with mild to moderate special needs, in St. Patrick's School in Enniscorthy we have children with moderate to profound needs. And these are the only two special needs schools serving a county with a population of 165,000 people. Wexford is lucky to have many autism units in mainstream schools. However, as I have said, many of the children who are placed in these classes, in these mainstream schools, are in inappropriate settings and their education is far from person-centred. The issue of school refusal is also at an all-time high in mainstream schools. Once again, students of varying abilities and needs in inappropriate settings in mainstream schools, and as a result, refusal is a huge problem. I spoke to a therapist this week who told me that in one second-level school alone in Wexford, she is dealing with 16 pupils who are school refusers. In actual fact, they are not refusing to go to school, they just couldn't go to school because their needs are not being met. These are highly intelligent, high-functioning children who can offer a lot to this country, and yet we fail them time and time again through the lack of provision of appropriate education. Minister, our country has gone, as you know, has gone through a lot in recent decades. We have come from economic bankruptcy to a flourishing economy with billions in reserve. We have the resources to, at long last, cherish all the children of the nation equally. If we do nothing else in this House, please, let us give all our children the opportunity they so richly deserve. Thank you very much.