Special Educational Needs Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister of State for coming here. I appreciate that the line Minister is here. I express my appreciation for the Minister of State coming to hear me out. I travelled to Loughrea and met the parents of children with Down's syndrome. They are listening in now as we speak and watching this. There is a formula of words in Circular 0024/2025 under "Criteria for Enrolment" in paragraphs (1)(b) and 2(a). As criteria for acceptance in these special classes, they must have a delayed language disorder or a speech sound disorder of "unknown origin". That de facto excludes children with disabilities that are known, for example, Down's syndrome. It is a rather perverse form of words because it excludes children who absolutely need this intensive speech therapy to become verbal. What really struck me in my meeting with the parents in Loughrea was their moral distress at the fact that they had brought this to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Naughton, met her, and the former Minister of State, Senator Rabbitte, and they had agreed a pilot scheme would be run in CDNT 8 in Loughrea. The gold standard internationally for children with Down's syndrome, for example, is that they receive four intensive speech therapy sessions per week over two years based on the principle of motor-based learning. If they get that intervention, they become verbal. There are 20 children affected in this way in CDNT 8. For want of the deployment of one speech therapist, these children are likely to become non-verbal. Human speech is the most powerful instrument we have, the human voice, to mobilise personal power, socialise and be included. To allow children to allow children to become non-verbal, 20 little citizens - the parents tell me in their engagement with other parents' groups, there is a similar number of children in every CDNT in this position. The Minister gave a response to them in August 2025 said that the boards of management of schools are permitted to enrol students who do not meet the prescribed criteria but have an SLD diagnosis to fill any remaining places in these classes, which includes children with Down's syndrome. I find that statement grotesque because it means ah sure look, if there are any places left over we will slot one of your children in, a child with Down's syndrome. That is not a rights-based response and that comes from the Minister. We are here to serve the people. I have a mandate to raise these issues. The Minister of State has a mandate; I know him personally as the former Chair of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. I know exactly how he feels about these matters. This formula of words based on an SLD of "unknown origin" has to be taken out of the circular. The needs of these little citizens need to be met. To become non-verbal is a needless, preventable and catastrophic outcome for these children and their families. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-17