Courts ‘only way to get rights for our special-needs children’

THE Government has spent well in excess of €10 million fighting parents seeking education for their children with special needs in the courts in recent years.

Last night, disability rights groups reacted angrily to a suggestion by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell that by taking these cases parents were wasting money.

As the Special Olympics placed the focus on disability rights, campaigners argued that parents had been forced to take legal action as a last resort to get their disabled children’s constitutional rights. The Government needs to provide services and laws giving disabled people enforceable rights, they said.