Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests and apologise for being a little late. I swapped slots with Deputy Ó Cathasaigh to give me an opportunity to reread the opening statements and I thank the Deputy for that.

I will not be introducing anything new to the conversation but there is scope for further information to be provided to us. I acknowledge what is largely a great deal of good news in the opening statements, notwithstanding the day-to-day difficulties that can arise. We must acknowledge the significant increase in budgetary support in the Department of Education, in particular for the provision of SNAs. There were 10,500 SNAs a decade ago and there are 18,000 today.

Other figures provided on autism services show there has been an increase of 9% at primary level and 74% in post-primary provision since 2017 alone. We must acknowledge these two points in the context of this discussion.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire made a worthwhile contribution on the anticipation of demand. I am sure every Deputy in every constituency can identify areas in which there have been deficiencies in the provision of services or at least in the timely provision of these services in terms of enrolment and what transpires thereafter for children with additional educational needs and autism. In looking into this, I acknowledge the extraordinary work done by SENOs, SNAs and resource teachers in the past 12 months. Many parents have contacted me to tell me about SNAs and resource teachers going above and beyond what was expected of them in their support of children with additional educational needs and autism.

I acknowledge that.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire outlined difficulties with anticipation of demand in Cork. I can look at north County Dublin and say that there are difficulties in communities such as Skerries and across the board in rural areas where secondary schools outside of Ashbourne and Balbriggan are not really providing services. As a result, there is a significant gap in the centre. How we identify those difficulties and deficiencies could be improved. I would appreciate a comment on that.

The other issue, which has already been touched on, is infrastructure. With all of these additional support teachers and resource hours that are made available to students, is existing school infrastructure capable of catering for the increased level of demand? In my community in Fingal in north County Dublin, which is one of the fastest-growing in Europe, will we be able to meet the level of demand, especially in view of the stated aim of reducing pupil-teacher ratios in both primary and post-primary schools?

My final point is relates to the statement Ms McGrath made about additional supports being provided, especially in the run-up to the summer, the issue of student well-being and the difficulties that have arisen with increased levels of anxiety. Could she identify a specific programme within the current offering that the Department has in place at present and during the summer that will identify students who have had mental health difficulties as a result of not being in class and the associated difficulties now that they are back in the classroom?