Deputy Mary Lou McDonald - speech from 20 Jan 2021

Thank you very much and can I just extend my thoughts and sympathies to the families of the 93 people whose deaths from COVID-19 were reported yesterday and to indeed all those who have been bereaved in the course of this pandemic. We truly live through very difficult times for so many families. Taoiseach, your Government has now abandoned plans to reopen special schools this week and special education. Minister Foley has twice promised that this would happen and she has twice failed to deliver. And the promises have fallen apart due to Government incompetence. And I have to say the Minister's approach on the media over the last 24 hours of finger pointing and seeking to scapegoat SNAs and teachers is fooling nobody. Everybody wants to see children and young people with additional needs back at school. That has been and remains a shared objective. Because they are the cohort of students that missed out most when schools closed in the spring. And the regression that was experienced by many as a result of the loss of their supports and routines was alarming. It caused incredible distress for them, for their parents and now these children and young people lose out again and again their parents are distressed. And the responsibility for this mess lies squarely with your Government Taoiseach. You told anyone who cared to listen that education during this pandemic was a priority. And yet you failed to put together anything resembling a Plan B. There was no thought given to how education would continue if schools had to close due to high rates of infection. Such a Plan B could have been, should have been on the shelf, having been discussed with all stakeholders, unions, management bodies, students and parents. And you have had months, since August in fact, to put in place these contingencies. By the way, special education is up and running in the North and indeed right across Europe. So people are left wondering how it is and why it is that that can't happen here. And the truth is that instead of being prepared, you scrambled at the last minute to put together a Plan. And it fell apart because there had been no consultation done and because you sought to bounce stakeholders. Your Government has a tendency to dictate policy by press release. I mean, we saw Minister Foley and Minister Madigan racing to gazump each other in the media. And that approach has resulted in very serious implications for children and young people and their families. Minister Foley now claims that her Plan collapsed because of bad faith. Well, let me tell you what is bad faith. It is bad faith to give these children, as she did, the impression that they would be back in school. When, in fact, the work was not done to ensure that schools were safe. The work was not done to ensure that all the people involved in delivering that Plan were on board. And all of this happened because the Minister made a big promise and hadn't done the work to deliver it. So, Taoiseach, children with special educational needs should be priority number one in education. They should be the first back into the classroom. But this has to happen on the basis of agreement. It has to happen on the basis of ensuring that schools are safe and that staff are safe. So, the talks that are, I hope, ongoing today need to take some serious shape now. I know that SNAs and teachers want to be back in school. I recall clearly in September that they moved heaven and they moved earth to get their classes back open again with very little notice. And you might advise Minister Josefa Madigan that comparing these professionals, teachers, SNAs and others, to mother and baby homes is not just crass and clueless, but is a very vain attempt to shift blame. The truth is that the concerns outstanding have to be addressed. And the other truth is that this can't go on forever. We need to see a result. We can't allow this to drift into the general reopening of schools. These children and their parents don't have the luxury of time. So, what we need now, Taoiseach, is a real, concrete, deliverable solution. Thank you, Deputy MacDonald. Taoiseach, please. First of all, I want to sympathise with the families and all those who have been bereaved as a result of COVID-19, and particularly those 95 families that we heard of yesterday. It illustrates the extraordinary, devastating impact that this virus has had on our entire society and community. May I also take the opportunity today, as well as Ciancola, just very briefly on behalf of the government and on behalf of the Oireachtas, to wish incoming President-elect Joe Biden the very, very best as he begins his journey as President of the United States. He's a very loyal friend of Ireland and has made no secret of that affection for this country. We look forward to welcoming him to Ireland during his presidency. Could I say also that it's with regret that I've heard Deputy MacDonald's contribution. I think it's overly partisan. It's overly political. It seeks to attack the minister and the government for seeking to work in good faith with all the partners in education to provide for children with special needs and their families. And the government took that decision originally when we took the decision not to reopen schools because we didn't want a million people on the move given the very high level of the community transmission of the virus and the high level of it in our community. But we did because we did want to provide for children with special needs. Everybody in the House did. I can quote every deputy, every spokesperson saying we must do something to provide for children with special needs. And that it can't be all closure and no opening. And some deputies suggested that we would open maybe for alternate days or particular parts of the week. And that we need to make some provisions. And the government worked in good faith to do that because we are conscious. Because I can go back through the first lockdown, what Deputy MacDonald said, what other deputies said, in terms of the necessity to have schools open. Have schools open now for children with special needs. Because everybody commented after the first lockdown the degree of regression and a very negative impact on families. That idea and principle was shared by the education partners in good faith as well. It is absolutely untrue to say there was no consultation. I just don't understand how Deputy MacDonald can stand up and say something like that. It's just so untrue. And it illustrates that this is a partisan political attack by Deputy MacDonald. Not any helpful constructive approach to this issue. And I can go through. Even last week in the public airwaves the General Secretary of the INTO was saying next week there will definitely be schools open and there will be members of the INTO and Forza in the schools. I think he said that in good faith. I think the leadership of the unions genuinely wanted and were anxious to try and get some provision for children with special needs. There has been an extraordinary degree of consultation on public health. And I think that webinar in itself with I think up to 14,000 if not more participating illustrates the concerns out there. And the interest out there. And the genuine contribution of many special needs assistants and teachers across the country. My sense of it is that there is a real genuine anxiety out there. And notwithstanding the combined sharing of the objective of opening schools for special needs children. That the wherewithal wasn't there to get a critical mass back into our schools right now. That's my sense of it without apportioning blame to anybody. But I can go through all the courts. I can go through all the meetings that have taken place between the department and the education partners. I can go through all of the responses of the Minister for Education on a whole range of issues that were raised by the unions on behalf of their members. All of which were exceeded to and responded positively to. So I stand by the Minister's commitment and sincere commitment to open schools for special needs and the government's. And I think it's wrong to play politics with children of special needs. Which I think is what I've witnessed this morning in your contribution. Thank you. Deputy MacDonald. Well, holding the government to account, Taoiseach, as you very well know, is not playing politics. And if I can just point to the irony of a government that itself has played politics and rushed very quickly to point fingers at SNAs, at teachers, at anyone by themselves for this fiasco. So, there is a shared objective for special education to function. The Minister says that she is committed to that. But the Minister has twice announced its reopening and has twice failed to deliver. The consultation that happened was clearly insufficient and the Minister jumped the gun. She made the big announcement to considerable fanfare that services would resume, but she did not have the plan in place. She had not settled or reassured teachers and SNAs, the caring, wonderful professionals who deliver the services and support to these wonderful children and young people. That had not been finalised. Now, by any calculation, that was a gross misjudgment on her part. And what is worse is, after the fact, to attempt to lay the blame and scapegoat and be incredibly divisive amongst the special education community. That is not good government. So, can I ask you, Taoiseach, are you telling the Dáil that you are reassured that Minister Foley, that Minister Madigan, can in fact deliver an agreed return to school and services, and that that can be done in the short term with the agreement and the necessary reasonable assurances that SNAs and teachers are looking for and rightly deserve? Thank you Deputy. I don't detect anything of substance in your contribution this morning on this. You have been going on about a Plan B for a long time, with no concrete fleshing out of what your Plan B is. Schools reopened in September through partnership, involving the parents, involving the unions, involving the department, involving the Minister, and with a lot of resources provided by government. And it was a successful reopening from September to Christmas. And public health played a very significant role in that, particularly Dr. Kevin Kelleher from the HSE, Dr. Abby Collins in particular, who were available every week to consult with leadership teams in education in respect of public health guidance and responses. And so the whole journey up to now has been a shared one between the partners in education. And that will continue. And that engagement will continue. And, you know, again, on the 15th of January, the INTO General Secretary made the point. He said, we will have a very significant number of force and ITO members who will be going back into special classes and into mainstream. I believe that every single school in Ireland will be opening their doors late next week. Thank you. Time is up. I think he meant that in good faith. But the point I'm making, it's clear that Minister Norma Foley equally felt that that was the trajectory of travel. And what issued on the Friday evening was an agreed guidance, which was agreed by all the partners, to go out to the school management and principals because they needed to get an advanced guidance framework prior to the 24th. Thank you.