Letters: Our education system is broken when it comes to special needs children

As a parent of two special needs children who both have autism and intellectual disabilities, hearing Simon Harris shocked and appalled that special needs children do not have access to career guidance in special schools really frustrated me.

How he can be shocked is beyond me. Children who attend many special needs schools don’t even have access to basic facilities and appropriate classrooms. They are in old, run-down prefabs with little or no space – make-do premises while they wait years and years for a new building that never arrives.

Mr Harris needs to visit special schools and see the profile of children who attend them. He needs to see the setting most of these children attend and see is it appropriate for any child, let alone our most vulnerable.

What does education look like for children like mine? That’s the problem. We don’t know.

We continue to push a system on these children that is broken and failing. There is a fixed focus on education, training, teachers and specialists. But should we not broaden our horizons?

We need to ask what is it that our children require. We need to examine life skills and exploring life and getting enjoyment from life.

We need a plan that gives children space to be children.

Education goes beyond the classroom. It’s time the specialists, therapists and educators asked themselves whether they honestly believe the method in place works for these children. If so, why is everyone so burnt-out and exhausted?

S Kavanst, Address with editor

​Rugby could be at risk of becoming as predictable as the Premier League

Leinster and the IRFU rugby people would do well to take seriously the points made by Rúaidhrí O’Connor (‘Seeing Leinster sign Joride Barrett is crushing for rivals who must fear they’ll never close gap’, Irish Independent sport, April 17).

In the short run, the more the Leinster and Ireland rugby teams win, the higher the attendance, viewer and sponsorship figures will be.

But the more predictable, boring and sustained that that dominance becomes, the more will attendance, viewer and sponsorship figures fall, after millions of euro had been borrowed for high-tech facilities and for training staff.

That is already happening in Gaelic football and hurling due to the dominance of well-endowed Dublin and Limerick teams, and also in horse racing, soccer, tennis and golf due to sustained dominances by small groups of teams and individuals.

Joe Foyle, Ranelagh, Dublin 6

​We were shown no mercy when an arm of the State wanted us out of our home

I saw an interesting article in the Irish Independent this week about a woman, alleged to be a burglary gang driver and who was a target of the Criminal Assets Bureau, who was given four months to leave the home being seized as the proceeds of crime.

The court gave her several months to leave – so her children’s school year is not disrupted.

Long ago, when Nama took over the properties of my landlord at the time, it decided to evict all of his tenants, including me and my family. We asked for extra time. It was approaching Christmas. The middle of the school year. Three children.

The answer was simple: “No. Get out. Minimum statutory notice.”

I contacted the housing minister at the time. The answer was: “If you have a problem, take it up with the PRTB [Private Residential Tenancy Board].”

Since, at the time, every other place we might rent was also owned by Nama, that didn’t seem like a good idea. We were out before Christmas.

Name and address with editor

​It is only a matter of time before we could be forced to share our homes

Thomas O’Connor (Letters, April 18) suggests that a constitutional amendment restricting home ownership to “one per person” may be the solution to the housing crisis.

While it’s obvious the issue requires urgent action, a constitutional change, given the recent referendum results, would be a step backwards.

In any event, should such an amendment be passed, how long before another is proposed, compelling home owners to share their accommodation?

Peter Declan O’Halloran, Belturbet, Co Cavan

Analysis of Iran failed to mention that country’s agenda against Israel

Jason Rezaian (‘What was Iran thinking? Maybe not what you imagined’, Irish Independent, April 18) in his review of Iranian policy was interesting and useful, but did not return all the way to the Ayatollahs’ seizure of power and agenda in 1979.

Until then Iran and Israel were at peace, though it was low-key given the fury of the Arab sector of the Muslim world at Israel’s appearance. ​

All this changed with the new theocracy. They stopped the “white revolution” that had cramped clerical privilege and prejudicessince 1963. Chadors and anti-Zionism, if not antisemitism, were formally instituted.

Relations with Israel were broken and the Israeli embassy was handed over to the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

From the start the Islamic republic sought dominance of the Middle East and the destruction of Israel – not because of a quarrel over territory or economy, but purely out of religious vanity, for want of a better word.

To merely list Israel’s air actions against Iranian agents and proxies in Syria and Lebanon as cause for last weekend’s 300-drone wave is to miss that for 20, if not 40, years Iran has funded, advised, trained and pushed hostile proxy NGOs to harass Israeli borders.

Frank Adam, Prestwich, Manchester

​Climate change all too real when an oasis in the desert turns into a sudden flood

I have only spent a few days in Dubai, but my memory and the advertising material is all desert-based. Then came this week’s deluge. Climate change is starting to hit everywhere. Maybe it’s time to do something about it.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

​We need more believers in the cherished idea of Irish sovereignty in the Dáil

If ministers who are elected by the people to stand in the sovereign chambers of Dáil Éireann to represent their constituents seemingly don’t believe in the concept of a sovereign Irish state then who do they really represent?

Seamus Hanratty, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan

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