Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I do not lay the question of our public finances at the door of these children or any of our children. It is a question of finding a way forward that will be sustainable in future. It comes against a background of much development in this area. I will come back to the specific points the Deputy raised, but I need to make the general point that over 11% of our total education budget, over €1 billion, is being spent in the special needs area, and rightly so. That level of investment particularly in the last ten or 12 years has been very significant. In total, we had 300 special needs assistants in our schools ten years ago, while there are now 19,000 staff in our schools working solely with children with special needs. Some 10,000 of those are special needs assistants. As I said, the figure has risen from 300 just ten years ago. We have quadrupled the number of resource and learning support teachers in our schools, and rightly so. We have brought the question of entitlements for those who are disabled and have difficulties to the centre of how we deliver an education system. Part of that philosophy is about mainstreaming children with disability in our schools. If one looks at the UN conventions in this area in terms of general policy it is all about ensuring that we give effective individualised support measures, providing environments that maximise academic and social development consistent with the goal of education.

The specific issue the Deputy raised concerns a legacy that has built up over time. For educational reasons, the educationalists say that at least nine places should be provided before one provides special classes in schools outside the mainstream environment. There were 128 such classes. The proof of educational grounds being the criterion is that when the Minister invited people to make a further appeal on their particular cases in any particular school, 14 of them were successful. Therefore they were able to make that case on educational grounds and it was acceded to.

With regard to the general policy, people with mild learning disability are mainstreamed in 3,000 schools. However, the Deputy is suggesting that the 35 here should be retained when in fact the whole policy direction is towards mainsteaming into the general class and providing individual supports within that environment. Generally speaking, the vast majority of parents go along with the idea that there is a wider social environment for the development of social skills by doing it that way. That is the context if one looks specifically at the schools mentioned by the Deputy, although I am aware of the point he is making. Of the 119 schools affected, 80 have reduced class sizes either under DÉIS or other previous disadvantaged schemes. Of the 80 schools, 17 will be due an extra post when the pupils in questions are divided among mainstream classes. So the loss of a teacher in respect of the special classes is compensated for in moving them into the mainstream class, increasing the pupils in that class and therefore - under the rules that apply - getting an extra teacher in 17 of those schools. The loss of the teaching post in the mild class will be offset by the additional post required to maintain the lower class sizes because of their disadvantaged categorisation. That is the full picture. In this respect, the Minister's response in inviting people to revisit those issues has seen a proportionate response where the educational grounds are established. In the other cases, because of the way the disadvantaged categorisation works, there is the prospect of an extra teacher in the main class environment because of the changeover.

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