Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The public can see that not only are we continuing to tackle our own major priorities, but we are doing it for the children with special needs, disadvantaged learning difficulties and the mainstream class. I have consistently stated our priorities and we have delivered very strongly not just in the area of special needs, but also in the areas of disadvantage. With regard to the DEIS report, last year I announced extra resources for our most disadvantaged schools.

Some 640 primary schools — 320 in urban or town areas and 320 in rural areas — and 200 second level schools have been identified to benefit from the new plan. Key measures to be implemented under the action plan include targeted early childhood education provision for 180 urban or town school communities, extended availability of home-school-community liaison and school completion programme services and the 180 urban and town primary schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage will be targeted to benefit from maximum class sizes not only of 20:1 in junior classes but 24:1 in senior classes.

Measures will be implemented to enhance student attendance, educational progression, retention and attainment. Measures will be put in place to support the recruitment and retention of principals and teaching staff in schools serving disadvantaged communities. Central to the success of the action plan will be an increased emphasis on planning, target-setting and measurement of progress and outcomes to ensure that the increased investment is matched by an improvement in educational outcomes for the children and young people concerned.

Another group of young people that need extra support to enable them to make the most of their time at school are those with special needs. It is the progress that the Government has made in this area of which I am most proud. There are now more than 5,000 teachers in our primary schools working directly with children with special needs, including those requiring learning support. This compares to less than 1,500 in 1998.

One out of every five primary school teachers is now working specifically with children with special needs. In addition, there are more than 1,000 teachers in special schools and in the region of 600 teachers in special classes attached to mainstream primary schools. There are also more than 7,100 special needs assistants, up from almost zero less than ten years ago. My Department spends over €30 million on school transport for special needs pupils. Over €3 million is now allocated towards specialised equipment and materials for pupils with special educational needs. This is up from €800,000 in 1998. These are children which need even more support.

The level of resources being made available by the Department to support students with special educational needs in the second level system has also grown significantly not only at primary level but also at second level. At this stage approximately 1,650 whole-time equivalent teachers and 1,100 special needs assistant posts have been allocated to second level schools and VECs to cater for the special educational needs of students at second level.

Another area of significant growth in recent years is support for children whose first language is not English. In the current school year, 562 whole-time equivalent language support teachers are in place at primary level and 262 whole-time equivalent teachers are in place at second level to support such pupils, representing an investment of €47.5 million. There are therefore more than 800 teachers teaching English only to international children who have come into our schools. That could not have been anticipated even five years ago. It is a significant and important investment, which allows those children to be integrated into the schools.

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