A chara, – I wish to echo Deirdre Carroll’s powerful message to Ministers (Opinion, March 30th). I am a parent of three children, one of whom has special educational needs and had the misfortune of being born at a time when the Government has turned its back on its responsibilities to children with such needs.
We are told now that we must all make sacrifices for the good of the country and for the good of the economy. Families of people with disabilities are no strangers to sacrifice.
But at a time when Government is asking taxpayers to increase their contributions through levies and taxes, taxpayers are entitled to ask how that money will be spent. Should it be used to attack the rights of children with special educational needs in the courts, or to resource services for some of our most vulnerable citizens?
We are urged to answer a patriotic call to save the nation from economic ruin. The patriots now running the country have decided that it is the most vulnerable who must suffer first, to serve as an example to be followed by the millionaire builders and bankers at some future (though unspecified) date. Children with special educational needs must now do without special education classes and must manage as best they can in the survival of the fittest model proposed by the Minister.
Newcomer children must do without the language support teachers that would give them a fair chance at benefiting fully from the education provided in our schools.
Traveller children must now struggle on with reduced supports from the State. All children with special educational needs, whether in special schools or in mainstream schools now face savage cuts in Special Needs Assistant allocations.
I am prepared to make sacrifices to secure my children’s future, but I will not sacrifice my children’s future to secure golden parachutes for those who led us to economic disaster.
We as a people have always appreciated the value of education. It is a given that investment in children’s education always pays for itself in the long run. Sadly, from our perspective, this truth has never applied to children with disabilities.
For decades now, the State has shamefully fought families through the courts to deny to our children the opportunities other children can take for granted.
Sometimes the parents have won, as in the O’Donoghue and Sinnott cases, and every victory represents a small step forward for us all. Other families are not so fortunate, but those of us who have been on the wrong end of court decisions draw strength from those who have gone before and resolve to repay the debt we owe them by ensuring that the challenges faced by those who will come after us will be easier to bear.
Let us rediscover a practical patriotism, which sees the promise to cherish all the children of the nation equally as a sacred duty and not just an empty soundbite. – Is mise.