Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Last February the Minister for Education and Science decided to close down 118 special needs classes in various primary schools. These are classes where children with mild learning difficulties are taken out of the mainstream classes and are then educated in classes with small numbers. It enables them to progress their education and allows the children in the mainstream classes to progress their education at their own pace. Some 40 of the schools concerned appealed the decision to the Minister for Education and Science and yesterday he made a decision which will allow for only ten of those special needs classes to be restored.

This is a cause of major concern and anxiety, particularly to the parents of the children in the special needs classes. I met many of them during the campaign for the recent local and European Parliament elections. I visited some of the schools, including some of the classes concerned. I met parents who were able to demonstrate to me the progress their children were making in the special needs classes. They also told me that in many cases they had enrolled their children in those schools because they had the special needs classes to accommodate their needs. They are now faced with their children going back into mainstream classes from September, which is causing anxiety to the parents and children concerned.

The Minister for Education and Science has sought to dress this up as something that is being done for the educational benefit of the children. It is not, of course. It is a cost-saving measure. The amount of money that will be saved is in the overall scale of things relatively small. The issue is now urgent because if it is not resolved before the primary schools close down in a week or ten days time for the summer holidays, it will not be resolved at all. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Education and Science to reverse the decision to close down these special needs classes? While I appreciate the country has financial difficulties, inflicting this kind of additional educational disadvantage on children who, in many cases are also socially disadvantaged and many of the schools concerned are in disadvantaged areas, is unfair and should be reversed. I ask the Taoiseach to have this decision reversed in order to allow these special needs classes to proceed. The amount of money involved is not huge and, I am sure, could be quite readily found from other parts of the education budget or elsewhere.

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