A new Bill which aims to uphold the right to an education of people with disabilities has been sharply criticised by rights campaigner Ms Kathy Sinnott.
The Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill, she said yesterday, was "neither rights-based nor person-centred".
The Bill was published by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, last month, and is the Government's response to cases, including that of Ms Sinnott's son, Mr Jamie Sinnott.
Ms Sinnott successfully took the State to court for failing to provide an education for her son, who is autistic. Mr Dempsey's Bill followed a consultation process with rights groups following the shelving of a previous Bill proposed by the former minister, Dr Michael Woods.
However, Ms Sinnott said the new Bill was very similar to the one proposed by Mr Woods and was a "regressive Bill dressed up in progressive language".
"In this Bill, special education will be at the whim of the Government's financial planners." The Bill, she claimed, denied parents their natural and constitutional rights in relation to the education of their child.
"It will not save the Government money by eliminating the need for parents to go to court. Rather, it only puts more costly obstacles in the way of parents who will still have no alternative but the courts to obtain an appropriate education for their child."
