It is always a source of great pleasure for me to be associated with St Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired.
I am particularly pleased to be with you today at the launch of this very exciting new development – the Mobile Resource Unit. I know that this venture brings to fruition an intensive planning and development effort. It will significantly add to the services provided by, or linked to, St. Joseph’s here in Drumcondra.
This project was made possible by the vision and professional expertise of St Joseph’s and the generous commitment and financial support of the Variety Club of Ireland. I pay tribute to Brian Allen, Father William Stuart and all of those in St Joseph’s who have helped to make this project a reality. I salute also Kevin Wall and Betty Wall and all of the team at the Variety Club of Ireland, for their generous support of this joint partnership.
We live in a world where access to information and the capacity to carry out and apply research are vitally important. This Mobile Resource Unit will create exciting possibilities for the sharing of information and research with a wide audience.
I am aware that the launch of this Mobile Resource Unit comes in the middle of a very busy Open Day. Earlier today, the National Braille Production Centre launched its new Website. Like the Mobile Resource Unit, this will extend the outreach capacity of St Joseph’s. My congratulations go to all of those involved in that project.
I would also like to extend my congratulations, in advance, to those who will be receiving their Diplomas from the University of Worcester, later in the afternoon.
I know that the Open Day started this morning with a presentation on the Comenius project, which linked St Joseph’s with sister organisations in Sweden, Scotland, the Czech Republic and Italy.
The Comenius Programme and other similar European programmes remind us that the benefits of our European Union membership have not been confined to the economic sphere alone. On the contrary, the EU has enabled professionals and organisations in the social, educational and cultural spheres to share knowledge and expertise. Together, they have collaborated on the development of new initiatives.
I am delighted to see that the Mobile Research Unit will have a strong European Dimension. Brian tells me that the Unit, the first of its kind in Europe, will travel across the continent providing a summer camp for children with visual impairment, once a year. And it is going to start this summer by providing support for a summer camp in Spain during July. Then, in August, it will move on to Chemnitz, in Germany to attend an international conference – where, I have no doubt, it will cause quite a stir.
Exciting and all as the European dimension to this venture is, even more encouraging is the prospect of bringing the expertise of St Joseph’s to towns and villages across Ireland.
St. Joseph’s has a long and distinguished history of service-provision, which goes all the way back to 1884. As a society we owe a debt of gratitude to specialist centres for children with disabilities of various types. Indeed, a number of these centres are located within little more than a mile from here. I am thinking of the schools for the deaf in Cabra, St Vincent’s Centre for Learning Disabilities on the Navan Road and St Michael’s House, on the Ballymun Road.
Of course, in recent years, we have seen a rapid growth in the provision for children with special educational needs within mainstream schools. This development has been made possible by the Government, which is providing resource teachers, special needs assistants and funding for assistive technology. The progress made in this area will be taken a stage further by the National Council for Special Education and its newly recruited team of locally-based Special Educational Needs Organisers.
The challenge, which now faces St Joseph’s and other schools, is to consolidate and deepen the knowledge and expertise, which a specialist centre of excellence can give. At the same time, they must help to make such knowledge and expertise available to children, parents, teachers and support professionals throughout the country.
I am sure that all of you here today will share my confidence that St. Joseph’s School for the Visually Impaired is equal to that challenge. This Mobile Resource Unit provides concrete evidence that our confidence is well-founded.
Thank you.
ENDS.