Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

While I was campaigning for an hour in my city last Saturday, two school principals approached me and told me they were having serious problems. Both principals, who are based in rural villages, had lost the special needs assistant and resource teaching support they had the previous year. These people felt they had been doing a good job looking after children with special needs. However, because of the weighted model, they did not qualify for as much support as they had the previous year. Where one child would have had a full-time special needs assistant, they were now being asked to share an SNA with another child because of decisions of local special educational needs organisers. There are genuine difficulties for schools that are working hard and being all-inclusive in trying to bring as many children as possible with difficulties into their schools. These principals believe they have lost out under the system, which needs to be re-examined.

In some cases the NEPS psychologists are referring people to the Health Service Executive psychological service. I have come across people who have been told they must wait two years to be assessed within the health service before they will be considered for educational support.

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