State must not ignore healthcare

TOO often it happens in this country that parents of children with special needs are forced into confrontation with the Government to try and wrench for them the rights to which they should be entitled.

Another such example is the deplorable situation in St Vincent's School, a special-needs school in Dublin, which is documented in this newspaper today.

What happened was that the 34 children attending it returned this month to find that the nursing staff of seven had been reduced to one, plus one job sharer. They were replaced by six teachers and 12 classroom assistants.

The point is that the children need health staff, because, as a special-needs school, it cannot be treated as a mainstream one.

Parents blame two Supreme Court judgments; the first ruled that all children should be entitled to a free primary school education; the second that all children were entitled to an 'appropriate' education. The parents say the Government has now placed an over-emphasis on education and that the primary needs of their children's healthcare is being ignored.

Even though it was warned that special-needs schools cannot operate under the same rules as mainstream schools, so far the Government has done nothing.