Imagine trying to convince a government that it has to uphold the laws that it rules over. It is like the plot of an eery psychological thriller. Imagine being the parents of a child with additional needs who is trying to access these supports for their child but they are met with blockage after blockage. Parents have enough to be doing to support and parent their child without having to be activists to be able to get the basic legal entitlement for an assessment of need for their child. Parents are exhausted and they feel ignored. They are disappointed and desperate. I have said that so many times in this House in the year since I was elected to the House. I am sick of saying the same thing again and again. These parents are exhausted. They cannot be activists for the things they are entitled to by law. It is unfair, unjust and illegal. The Minister said we should not be relying on the private system forever. We should not be relying on it at all. We have a public system and that is what we should be relying on. When will people get it? Families have no choice but to access private services. Some parents are able to handle financial cost and others parents are not. Why should they have to pay for a service that the State is, by law, supposed to be providing? The system is broken into smithereens. Parents want the best for their children. I am a parent of four. I want the best for my children, and so does every parent who has contacted me from throughout the country to talk about what they need for their child with additional needs. One parent contacted me and told me her son, who is non-verbal, will not see a speech and language therapist for four or five years. That is a basic service that a non-verbal child should get. I have learned from the latest press release that there will be no need for an assessment of need to access a special class or special school. What does that mean for a mild general learning disability school? Is this a new way to call these schools catch-all schools? This will be detrimental to the children attending those schools who are thriving and doing so well. The education committee heard from those schools before the summer. We were blown away by their passion and all they had to say about what they do to support those children. Because of what has happened, they now ask how they will support those children. I have bringing attention to this issue, as I said, for a year now. It is devastating for everybody involved that they are not going to be able to maintain the wonderful service they have. What the Department has said is not good enough. It is not good enough either that we had this press release because we are having this debate. The Minister should be doing her job. We should not be over here telling her how to do her and pointing out all that is wrong. It is just not good enough.

Sentiment score: -0.02