Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

—noting that progress has been made in the area of special needs education, including the passage of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004;

—expresses its concern that families still find it necessary to seek redress in the courts for the failure of the State to meet the educational needs of their children;

—urges the Government to ensure that there is further progress in delivery of promised improvements, including allocation of the resources required to meet the special needs and equal rights of all pupils and to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools;

—notes the widespread concern among parents, teachers and principals that the proposed weighted system of allocation of special needs teachers to schools would, in practice, be a "quota" system which would result in the loss of teachers to many schools, especially in disadvantaged and rural areas, and loss of support to many pupils with special needs;

—acknowledges the statement of the Minister for Education and Science that she wishes to see a system introduced that would not result in loss of services to any child;

—calls on the Minister for Education and Science to immediately conclude her Department's review of the proposed weighted system, to publish the outcome of the review and to initiate a revised and improved system for deployment of special needs teachers as soon as possible;

—urges that such deployment of teachers be based on the right of each individual pupil to have his or her special educational needs assessed and on the right of each pupil to the resources required to ensure that each can reach his or her full potential;

—calls on the Minister for Education and Science to immediately approve the enhanced support and investment essential for existing schools catering exclusively for pupils with special needs;

—calls on the Minister for Education and Science to recruit the additional 650 teachers needed to implement the programme of improved education for persons with special needs;

—urges the full implementation of the recommendations of the Report on Educational Provision and Support for Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, the report of the task force on autism 2001;

—calls for the immediate provision by the Irish and British Governments of all the necessary additional financial, personnel and other resources required to accelerate delivery of the Middletown Centre for Autism, County Armagh; and

—urges the Government to take immediate steps to fulfil its commitment to reduce class sizes for children under nine to less than 20 and to plan for future teacher supply requirements, including by the immediate establishment of a forum on teacher supply.

I wish to share time with Deputies Ó Snodaigh, Morgan, Gregory, Finian McGrath and Gogarty.

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