M J Nolan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

At the outset, I should put on record the extraordinary changes that have been made in the education system and compliment the Minister and previous Ministers for their commitment to education at every level — primary, secondary and third level. What we have seen over the past ten years is very heartening, particularly in the area of special needs. Huge investment has been made in identifying the shortfall for special needs pupils and rectifying it. Those involved in education will say they are heartened by the commitment of this Minister to continuing that programme. In the context of the upcoming budget, I hope the Minister for Finance will again be generous in looking after the Department of Education and Science.

I know the delivery of services in the health and education sectors to people with disabilities and special educational needs is a priority of the Government and I wish to see it continue. Since 1998, this Government has continued to provide funding for pupils with special needs. The number of staff working solely in the area of special education has grown enormously in that period. There are 6,000 primary school teachers working directly with children with special needs, compared with 1,500 in 1998. That in itself shows the commitment.

One of the concerns I have, with which I hope the Minister can deal, relates to a case in my constituency where a child starting school in September was waiting to be assessed for a special needs assistant. No assessment could take place because the individual who was to assess that school was on maternity leave. I ask the Minister to look at that area to ensure that if somebody is on maternity or other form of leave and a service is not being provided because of it, replacements can be brought in either the private sector or another area and funding can be provided. In her statement last night, the Minister talked about private assessments but I would welcome it if she could examine that area so that where individuals are on leave for whatever reason, private assessments can take place. It is almost Christmas and I know that in this particular case, the individual will not be back until closer to Christmas and there is a three-month period lost.

Schools have access to psychological assessment for their pupils. Those schools that are not yet directly served by NEPS psychologists can have the assessment carried out by private psychologists and NEPS will pay for it. I ask the Minister to look at that particular area.

One of the major successes in our education policy has been supporting marginalised families through the home school community liaison scheme. The work these teachers do is incredible. I suppose it is under the radar and many of us do not see it but we get anecdotal evidence of marginalised families who, for one reason or another, have not been part of the mainstream education system and whose attendance record at schools has not been great over the years. Incredible improvements have been seen when teachers go out and make the effort to interact with those families. I know of a number of families in Carlow who have been brought into the system and the results have been astonishing. Individual pupils who did not go to secondary school are now doing so and doing their junior and leaving certificate. I know of some cases where such pupils have gone on to third level education. If one looked at them ten years ago and said that members of the community would go on to secondary school, let alone third level education, one would not be believed.

I commend the Minister on her work, wish her continued success and ask her to look at one or two small areas where we need to provide a service and insure it continues.

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