Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. I support what Deputy Catherine Martin said about the special needs assistant, SNA, allocation. It is a valid point and I appreciate the Minister's response. There is more to it than the Department having to wait until the schools complete their enrolment to know what allocation is needed. Typically, the only enrolment that changes is in junior infants. It can change in other classes but usually the other seven classes will remain more or less unchanged. There is an issue for children. If we are to go to a child-centred model of education there is an issue for children because many teachers who have been in a school for a while are moved unnecessarily because the allocation does not happen until October. There are too many changes in the teachers teaching students things like gross and fine motor skills. Children build up a rapport with the teacher who has a programme and prepares an individual education plan, IEP. There is then an unnecessary changeover of personnel and another teacher has to come in, follow a previous teacher's IEP and build up a new relationship with and understanding of the child. It is having an impact on the children's learning and welfare. In this day and age the Department should have the wherewithal to overcome that difficulty and find the means of allocating the resources for children with special learning needs before October. I feel very strongly about that. I wrote to the Minister and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, this year to make a plea on behalf of a parent for a student who was going to be affected by this very issue and I was told there was no facility or flexibility, which I deeply regret. We have to have a more child-centred attitude. In this day and age we should have the wherewithal to make that allocation. Perhaps a supplementary allocation could be made afterwards but allocations should be done earlier in the year.

The second issue is something I have raised with the Minister by way of parliamentary question. It concerns the teachers' unions and the pay awards happening at the moment. If teachers choose not to be members of a union, it is their right and entitlement for which they should be respected and they should not be punished for it. In the secondary school sector, unless teachers are members of the TUI they cannot avail of certain conditions even if they are willing to sign up to the new procedures and arrangements. They cannot avail of the improved conditions unless they are members of the union. That is the Department forcing teachers to become members of a union by stealth. I find it perplexing. I would like to hear the Minister's comments on it and to see what can be done. I do not support punishing a teacher for not being a member of a union.

Deputy Thomas Byrne talked about legal fees in the Department. I received a reply to a parliamentary question from the Minister recently which outlined the legal fees expended by the universities in the last number of years defending cases involving staff. In the past 12 months, the amount the third level sector has spent defending cases involving its staff has trebled. This is a sector that is starved of finance and is highly vulnerable in that regard yet it is spending millions of euro on legal fees. What are the Minister's thoughts on the fact that in one year, the sector has trebled the amount of money it has spent on legal fees involving its own staff? What is the Department thinking? Does it have any appetite to further investigate the underlying reasons for the number of cases emerging in the courts involving staff at third level? Has the trend been noticed by the Department?

The Ombudsman for Children launched his report yesterday in which he referred to the Department's overly hands-off approach and a recalibration of responsibility from the Department back to schools. The Minister is aware it is a tune I have been singing for a long time now. I welcome the Ombudsman for Children's conclusion, which is what I have been saying for several years now. Will the Minister comment on how he or the Department would approach that recalibration of responsibility as referred to by the ombudsman yesterday?