Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I may have to scoot off for few minutes and I might miss the answers to my questions. I apologise to the Minister of State for this but I will listen back to them.

I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, for her work. It shows the importance the Government has placed on special education, given that we have a Minister of State dedicated to that.

My questions are both specific and general. The first question is on the early intervention classes. It was very good to hear the Minister of State's clarity on that in response to Deputy Cairns. I wish to highlight a situation the Minister of State may be aware of. The fantastic school, St. Colmcille National School in Togher, County Louth, has an incredible principal with an incredible commitment to early intervention classes. That school is almost a victim of its own success whereby children leave the early intervention classes and go into the mainstream classes but because of the matriculation in how the NCSE derives SNA places, those children who are in need of extra SNAs do not get them in the mainstream classes. If they had remained in the special classes they would have got more SNAs. I am aware that the argument is to reduce SNAs when the need reduces but I believe that the SNAs are there to ensure that the child reaches his or her best potential and I believe they should have extra allocation for SNAs in a mainstream class. It should be child-specific rather than class-specific. This might be a way to review how we are allocating our SNAs to those mainstream classes for children who are really succeeding in the early intervention classes.

My second question relates to lessons that will have been learned through Covid. We all have lessons we need to learn. Will the Minister of State indicate if that work and research is ongoing? I suppose we will not see the consequences of Covid on our special needs children for another couple of years but has any thought been given to making special education an essential service in order that these classes would not shut down again? Will these disability services be made essential services so that, if there was a fear that we would have another pandemic or another crisis, these children would not fall off the edge and that they would have a continuation of service?

On SNAs and the fantastic course and the work that they do, will that new UCD course be accredited? We have huge respect for SNAs and the committee knows the important work done by SNAs. They keep our inclusive education system going. Without SNAs the children would not be there. Their multidisciplinary role within our schools is absolutely integral. What is being done about accrediting that course? Will there be acknowledgement of the levels of accreditation? Will the course be accredited and awarded to those people who are doing it?

The Minister of State referred to our special classes and the autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units that are dedicated to autism. How do we encourage or help a family that does not have an autism diagnosis for their child, who does not fit into these ASD units but who absolutely does need a special class place? I know of one particular family that is struggling to find a multidisciplinary special needs class. They are not getting the child into schools because they do not have an autism diagnosis. What would be the Minister of State's advice to me as a public representative and what is her advice for parents in this regard? How do we organise or help schools to establish these multidisciplinary classes? I am not sure of the proper title for these classes but how would we encourage and help that?