Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

There has been a lot of discussion here previously on this issue. This debate is a welcome opportunity for us to address the issue again and I commend the Technical Group on raising it. I agree with Deputy Harris with regard to how this has been communicated and accept there have been mistakes made along the route on the issue. As an elected representative who has been dealing with the area of education, I have tried to concentrate on this issue and to draw out the information with regard to special needs assistants and the difficulties faced by parents. I do not know about other Deputies, but most of the parents who have come to me are worried sick by the possibility of their child losing their special needs assistant. They are worried sick because if their children lose that support, there is little left in the line of education available to those children.

I have read the value for money policy review in regard to this issue. Most of the cuts being made seem to be based on that review. The Minister of State reiterated tonight that the review points out the possible over-allocation of SNAs in schools, to a level of 10% in special schools and 27% in mainstream schools. The big question I and parents have with regard to this review is where these figures were pulled from. We would also like to know who drew up the report. It is reasonable for parents faced with the prospect of their children losing their SNA to look around and suggest there could be another area where cuts could be made within the education system instead. Most of us on the Opposition side have tried to be helpful in that regard.

We accept that the Minister has only one envelope of money; our argument is that the money in that envelope could be better spent. We went through this argument in regard to the Estimates. An example I gave during that debate was an article in The Irish Times last week which reported that the head of a college in Waterford spent €100,000 on taxis to and from Dublin. When asked about these expenses, he contended that the expenditure represented value for money. All the heads of the various educational institutions are on very high wages, with many receiving hundreds of thousands of euro in expenses. Yet, at the same time, SNAs earning €14 per hour are being let go.

I met with families in my area last week who cannot comprehend how their children have lost their entitlement to special needs assistance. As other Deputies observed, it comes back to a question of assessment. In some cases it is apparently taking 15 minutes to assess a child's needs. I am not an expert and do not know what is involved in such assessments, but the parents of these children are equally in the dark. I am aware of situations where there is no on-site inspection facility and children's needs are being assessed on the basis of reports. All of these issues lead to a great deal of confusion and fear.

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