Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, but I am glad Deputy Ó Caoláin has raised this matter on the Adjournment of the House because it gives the Minister an opportunity to put the case. While legitimate matters about staff concerns arise from this matter, there is no substantive issue related to the welfare or care of this group of vulnerable children.

Special needs assistants are assigned to schools to meet the care needs of individual children who have been assessed by a psychologist as requiring this type of support. Where it has been established that additional special needs assistant posts are necessary, these posts continue to be allocated on an ongoing basis. The recruitment of additional staff in schools where such a need has been identified is not contingent on the removal of special needs assistants from schools with surplus staff. Where a need has been identified, schools can proceed immediately to recruit the required staff.

This Government has put in place an unprecedented level of support for children with special needs. Since 1998, the number of special needs assistants has increased from under 300 to nearly 6,000. In addition, more effective systems, such as the National Council for Special Education, have been put in place to ensure that children get support as early as possible.

At this stage the National Council for Special Education has dealt with all new applications from schools for special needs assistance that will be required from the beginning of September 2005. Therefore, there should be no reason a child enrolling in a school in September 2005 who requires special needs assistance does not have that assistance in place from his or her first day in school.

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