It’s a story in itself that it was quite shocking last week to see a minister stand up to her officials, but Minister of State for Disabilities Anne Rabbitte did the right thing by vulnerable children and their families and teachers.

The decision this week by Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte to suspend the roll-out of the controversial Progressing Disabilities Services (PDS) scheme – which would have seen special schools lose their on-site therapists to community-based hubs – followed months of lobbying by special schools and parents’ groups, and a series of what were reportedly increasingly frustrated meetings between the minister and Health Service Executive officials.

That Rabbitte informed officials of the halting of the introduction of PDS after 4pm on Thursday afternoon, just as her pre-recorded interview on Newstalk announced the same decision, was a clear power play by the junior minister, and one she was extremely unlikely to have made without the full support of the Taoiseach, in whose constituency is one of those special schools about to be negatively impacted by PDS.

A well-placed source said last weekend: “You can be damn full sure Anne Rabbitte wouldn’t have done that without Micheál’s 110% backing, and that backing absolutely makes sense when kids in his own back yard were about to be affected by this”.

Under the PDS scheme, services for children with complex needs would be provided within a community setting rather than in a school setting, with Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNT) being established to provide services and supports for children with disabilities within a defined geographic area.

St Columba’s Girls National School in Douglas has a facility for 34 deaf and hard of hearing boys and girls from........

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