Olivia Kelly
People with disabilities will be allowed to stay in school after the age of 18, though the State is not obliged to provide them with an education beyond this point, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has said.
Despite a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that the State did not have to provide free education for people after 18, Mr Dempsey said this did not mean the State would not do so, and he would not see disabled people "thrown out" of school.
Education was "not about constitutional requirement in my case", he told the Dáil Committee on the Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill yesterday. "What the Government will be trying to do is ensure that the supports necessary to education will be available to every citizen in the State to reach their full potential," he said.
Mr Dempsey was speaking after Fine Gael TDs Ms Olwyn Enright and Mr David Stanton proposed that the word "child" be replaced by "student" in the education Bill, so disabled people would be able to remain in education beyond 18, if required. The proposed amendments were ruled out of order because they would impose a cost on the State.
Many people with disabilities started school at a late stage and were still in full-time education beyond the age of 18, Mr Stanton said.
"This Bill does not support the child after 18. What will happen to that child? How is this person to be supported?"
A young person who reaches 18 "will be allowed to finish their education," Mr Dempsey said. "The State does not have a constitutional obligation, but this does not mean that the State won't do it."
However, he said the current Bill was designed to cater for people from nought to 18 and their constitutional rights and this could not be changed without risking court actions.
"We could have someone doing the Leaving Cert to 65."
The forthcoming Disabilities Bill, due to be published at the end of this month by the Department of Justice, would provide for the education of people over 18.
The Department of Education had worked closely with the Department of Justice in formulating both Bills, Mr Dempsey said.