Mr. Dessie Robinson:

We see the role of special needs assistants developing. There are three or four different types of special needs assistant. The first is where the SNA is focused solely on meeting the care needs of the child, for example, in toileting, etc. The second is where the SNA, under the teacher's instructions, keeps the child on course academically. We take into consideration some of the points made about making sure children are self-sufficient at the end of the process. That is the goal. The reason the people we represent become a special needs assistants is that they have a vocation to help children. Special needs assistants are also being asked to perform a third role where they perform, without any training, invasive procedures such as catheterisation.

Recently I carried out a survey, not the formal SurveyMonkey one but by sending an e-mail asking people if they were involved and, if so, who gave the training. Out of all the responses, the vast majority were trained by the parent to perform catheterisation, an invasive procedure, which could go wrong. I am not a medical practitioner but I understand one could puncture the bladder and that is severe. Do we have to wait for that to happen before we provide training? Our SNAs are not saying, and neither are we, that they would not perform it because it is a care need. If one is going to ask people to perform such procedures or all the other procedures, however, then one has to train them formally. The other point I would make is that they are willing. We provided sensory integration training a number of times up until this year. On a Saturday morning we could have 150 people in the Red Cow on their own time. They were there and wanted to be trained and wanted to develop. As Senator Mary Moran said, some of them are highly qualified they came into the job because of their vocation and want to develop, so there is a role for them to develop. The most important phrase I heard today came from Senator Moran who spoke about striking the balance and ensuring, at the end of the day, that the child is looked after. That is what it is about.

I was accused earlier of making a party political broadcast. I resent that remark on the basis that there is no area of my submission that does not represent the views of my members. Everything I have said today about the lack of security, fragmentation of posts and lack of training are all the views of my members. To say we are making a party political broadcast on behalf of IMPACT is not correct. IMPACT is its members. The members give us their views, we feed them back out. That is what I have done today.