Education for disabled is a right

HARDLY a day passes without banner headlines chronicling the gross inadequacy of State services for people with learning disabilities, or the relentless battles waged

As today’s report on the plight of yet another family shows, the State continues putting obstacles in the way of people campaigning for basic entitlements for some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Thankfully, the parents of Niall Cooney, a five-year-old victim of moderate autism, have finally secured State funding for his education after an exhausting two-year battle with the Department of Education. However, in common with other families, they were dragged through the legal system before a settlement was finally agreed in the High Court.

The efforts of civil servants to save taxpayers’ money would be reassuring if it were not being squandered on less deserving causes. It should not be beyond the Government’s capacity to devise a fairer system of assessing disability cases in a manner less confrontational and less costly in legal terms.

What the Cooney victory means is that the State will contribute 800,000 towards the cost of keeping 24 children with disabilities at the aptly-named Stepping Stones special school in County Meath.

At the end of the day, it required a two-pronged campaign by the family and the school to convince the department of the need for funding.

The settlement approved by Mr Justice Peter Kelly also provides for the cost of speech and language therapy and for occupational therapy to be paid by the State.

The burden on these and other families engaged in the harrowing struggle with officialdom is evidenced by the fact that, up to last week, parents of the 24 children at the school were paying around 35,000 a year out of their own pockets for specialist tuition.

The mean-minded attitude of this government towards disabled people was symbolised last month when protesters demonstrated as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern marked Ireland’s contribution to the European Year of People with Disabilities.

The grim reality is that, across the country, over 1,700 disabled people are waiting for residential care, respite or day places.

In such a year, it is utterly unacceptable that this country’s limited service of speech and language therapy should be further curtailed in a series of cutbacks by stealth.

Politically speaking, the disabled are still seen by the Government as a soft target. In their hidden world, they do not yet constitute the kind of in-your-face lobby politicians would worry about.

Nevertheless, courageous families will derive solace from such landmark victories as those of Niall Cooney and Jamie Sinnott. However, as long as the Fianna Fail-PD Coalition persists in putting legal obstacles in their path, parents will face an on-going struggle to gain special education for disabled children.

Until the State acknowledges the needs of disabled people as a question of right rather than an issue to be dragged through the courts, Ireland’s celebration of the Year of the Disabled will be seen as rank hypocrisy.