Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and her officials to today's meeting. Before I ask my first question, I assume she has the required delegated responsibility for the area of special needs. Will she confirm that?

We had a good engagement with the chief executive officer of the National Council for Special Education last week and he was open to the idea of re-examining and reappraising the threshold, that is, the numbers of students per special class. I can think of a couple of schools in my constituency that have requested the opening of a new class but they are not in a position to do it because other schools in the area, although not in the same community, have classes. Working on the assumption that the Minister of State has the delegated responsibility in this area, does she share the same opinion as the chief executive officer on re-examining that threshold? It is six per class currently. A reduced number would satisfy many parents who wish to keep their children in their own community.

It is not satisfactory that the system looks at a 20-mile radius but people who have sons and daughters in mainstream primary school classes are afforded the luxury of being kept in local communities. Under the current policy, if the classes do not fill to the required threshold, children with special needs may have to travel 20 km, 25 km or 30 km. That is against the express wishes of the school, the principal, the board of management and the parents' association, who have an aspiration or ambition to open another class. Under the current policy, they are not in a position to do so.

The NCSE and SENOs work under this policy and, in fairness, the SENOs see the value of keeping sons and daughters in their own communities. Under the current system, that threshold of six is a big number, especially in rural areas. It may cover an area between 25 km and 35 km across and parents who wish to keep children in a closer school may not be able to do so. This is the complete opposite to what is happening in the greater Dublin area, where there is pressure to get schools open. In my county, principals want to open classes but are not in a position to do it because of current policy.