Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I commend the Fine Gael Party for tabling this motion. I agree with those who stated that this is an extremely important issue. I share all the concerns expressed in the motion. Deputy Stanton and I spent many hours in committee rooms debating every aspect of what became the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act with the then Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Dempsey, in an attempt to ensure that we got matters right. The Minister of State, Deputy Devins, did not have time to conclude his speech, but judging by what is stated at the end of the script, it seems that it will be 2010 before that legislation and the relevant parts of the Disability Act will be implemented in respect of older children up to the age of 18 and for adults. While we try to get legislation right, its implementation seems to take an extraordinarily long time.

Legislation is particularly important in this area in the context of the crucial importance of ensuring that young people receive it, as early as possible, when they need it. Any parent whose child has a learning difficulty will state that they will do anything to obtain support for their child within the system as quickly and as early as possible.

I recently attended a meeting with a special educational needs organiser, SENO, a parent and a school principal. Everyone agreed that the child who was the subject of the meeting needed support, access to a special needs assistant and some additional hours with a resource teacher. The only way the mother could procure the necessary intervention was to do so on a private basis. Luckily enough she was able to scrape the money together to facilitate her child in this regard but even then she was informed by the SENO that a particular diagnosis, made by a certain type of medical specialist and indicating that her child had dyspraxia — her child may only have had a version of this condition — would have to be forthcoming before the required resource hours could be provided.

People such as the woman to whom I refer spend a great deal of time dealing with the child and adolescent mental health services. Those who do not fall into the categories of more common incidence are placed on waiting lists. I recently raised the case of another child in my constituency whose parent was informed that they would be obliged to wait 20 months for access to the service. During the 20-month period, the child, who is six years old, was not going to receive any support at his school. When I contacted the services in my constituency, I was informed that there were 98 children on the waiting list for the east Limerick team and that the latter also receives many emergency referrals which must take priority, a point I accept. I was further informed that attempts were being made to get a second team for east Limerick but that, to date, there has been no success in that regard.

When I tabled a parliamentary question in respect of this matter I was informed that there are 3,598 children on the waiting list for the child and adolescent community child psychological services. It is to the latter that parents trying to obtain support in schools must go.

It is extraordinarily wrong that children who need support in school are obliged to go on these general lists — the Minister of State, Deputy Devins, might agree with me in this regard. There are health and educational issues involved here which are being mixed together and this is not working. Early intervention is crucial and I do not believe the system is serving the needs of children properly. The Departments of Education and Science and Health and Children need to come together to see if a better system to provide support for children in schools can be arrived at.

SENOs inform us that under the rules by which they must abide, they cannot provide support, even though they know it is needed. At the meeting to which I referred, everybody agreed that the child in question needed support. However, those responsible were not in a position to give it until the special diagnosis relating to the child was obtained. This appears to be a crazy way to use scarce health resources.

The Minister for Education and Science has left the Chamber. However, she is aware that when I served as my party's spokesperson on education I continually pointed out that the weighted model — she referred to it as the general allocation model — was simply wrong in terms of the provision of support within schools. That model allocated support on the basis of numbers in a school rather than on the basis of the needs of the children.

One of the delegates, a teacher at an inner city school in Dublin, at the Labour Party's conference last weekend pointed out that supports were given to areas such as Foxrock. I apologise for singling out areas but the delegate highlighted that schools such as that in Foxrock were given two supports per 100 pupils and a special allocation of resource teachers. The school in question might only have had a small number of children with special needs. Schools in the inner city and in my constituency were given virtually the same allocation. There was a slight increase as a result of disadvantaged area status but this did not amount to much. There are large numbers of children in certain schools who need the support provided by resource teachers. However, they do not receive it precisely because they attend these schools. If they had been in other schools in more wealthy areas, they would have received them. This represents a major disservice to children who need special educational supports and it is ultimately wrong.

The general allocation model is not working. In certain areas as many as one third of children have literacy and numeracy difficulties. The schools they attend are obliged to approach the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to have assessments carried out. If one is not in an area covered by NEPS, one is only entitled to two psychological assessments per 100 children. That is not nearly enough for certain schools that deal with disadvantaged families, in which there is a high incidence of people requiring special needs support. That is an absolute fact and studies were compiled by the Department of Education and Science to highlight it. Despite the evidence, the weighted model is being pushed on the system. This is a serious problem and it must be addressed.

I wish to refer to the area of suicide. Deputy Neville walked out of the Chamber in disgust when it emerged that some of the ASIST programmes, to which the Minister of State referred, have been cancelled due to a shortage of funding.

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