Reaction statement to Government announcement that resource hours are to be allocated to children with Down syndrome with mild intellectual disabilities

Reaction statement to Government announcement that resource hours are to be allocated to children with Down syndrome with mild intellectual disabilities

25 March 2015

On behalf of all children with Down syndrome and their families we welcome the decision made by Minister for Education, Jan O’Sullivan, to allocate 2.5 hours per week, with immediate effect, to children with Down syndrome with mild intellectual disability.

Today’s announcement brings to an end a 10 year battle that families have endured and fought so desperately to highlight and change. The unjust situation brought unnecessary stress, pressure and trauma on families and today’s decision, whereby now all children with Down syndrome with intellectual disabilities have access to resource hours, goes some way to alleviating that.

We only welcome today’s decision as an interim measure pending the overall roll-out of the new and so desperately-needed model of resource hour allocation for children with education needs which the Government has promised for September 2015.

However, today’s announcement does not go far enough. A recognition of Down syndrome as a disability in its entirety, by the Department of Education would have spared our children and their families the continued trauma and expense of assessments, a system based more on bureaucracy rather than reality and logic.

Ireland as a whole has suffered as a result of the economic crisis – something that was not caused by the general population nor by people with disabilities in particular. People with Down syndrome, like other people with disabilities, suffered disproportionately during the period of austerity. Quite apart from the financial cuts that our members have suffered, there has been an inordinate deterioration in the level of services to our members due to the funding cuts to services and the HSE that is charged by the state to provide for our members.

As we welcome today’s decision to provide resource hours for all children with Down syndrome attending mainstream schools, we vouch to continue to lobby for a proper plan to be put in place to right the wrongs of recent years for all people with disabilities. As such, we’re calling on the Government to accept that there can be truly be no economic recovery without providing for all people with disabilities who suffered more than most in the years of austerity.

We sincerely wish to thank all of the families of children with Down syndrome who campaigned so tirelessly for the allocation of resource hours for children with Down syndrome with mild intellectual disabilities.

We also wish to thank Deputy Regina Doherty and Deputy Mary Mitchell O’Connor for their support of this campaign and their continued support of Down Syndrome Ireland.

On behalf of, and together with every unique individual with Down syndrome in Ireland, Down Syndrome Ireland are committed to working towards an Irish society where people with Down syndrome are respected and accepted as valued members of our society. We believe that our Government urgently needs to provide more support to help to achieve this.