Waterford Fine Gael Senator and General Election candidate John Cummins chose to use his last speech in Seanad Eireann to once again call for more special classes across Waterford.
In his final speech to the house, Senator Cummins spoke of his own experience as a teacher and how a well-integrated and staffed ASD class system within the mainstream school setting has worked well and has positive impacts for students with additional needs, as well as the wider school population.
Senator Cummins said “I’ve had the opportunity in my teaching career, before I came into this house, to see how a well-integrated ASD class system works in practice. My own school had three ASD classes with full integration in terms of teaching across all of the main subjects and I really have seen the benefit both for the student with additional needs and for the wider school population in terms of teaching empathy and understanding, and I think that’s a really positive thing for society.”
He continued: “The model is a really good model, but obviously the availability of classes remains a challenge. In Waterford, we’ve had 12 additional ASD classes delivered in the school year 2024/2025, but we need significantly more.We have 70 in total now across both primary and post primaryand while many schools are very proactive in wanting to take on special classes, there are other schools that really need to step up to the plate”.
There are a number of options open to the Minister where they can instruct a school to open a class or take in a specific named student under the Education Act. These provisions have been utilised by the Department in a number of locations including Waterford. Senator Cummins said “The Department of Education need to support those schools who are willing to open classes, but equally, we need to be quite firm on those who have been reluctant to open them.”
Senator Cummins concluded his remarks by saying “We have significant additional capital monies allocated in the budget to open 400 special classes across the country for the next school year 2025/26 and I want to see a significant number of those in Waterford. I’m happy to work with the schools and with parents in that regard, however I do think there needs to be more joined up thinking between the Department of Education capital unit and whomever the new Minister for Special Education, because the Minister for Special Education doesn’t have a designated capital budget, that rests with the Minister for Education”.