Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Connick, as he performs his first duty in the House and warn him that he will be burdened with reading scripts on behalf of many senior Ministers if he does not put his foot down pretty quickly. It is not fair to him nor to us when that happens.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this vital issue concerning our special and most deserving young citizens. The Minister's decision will determine the quality of life they will enjoy for the rest of their lives. Great progress has been made in making provision for the education of special needs children generally, and I acknowledge that. While parents still have to fight step by step for services, the objective of the Government policy is that each special needs child would develop to the maximum of his or her potential.

The decision of the Government and the former Minister for Education and Science to remove 1,200 special needs assistants from the education system will be an unmitigated disaster for those who are special young citizens. The progress they have made will soon be reversed in the absence of or with the reduction of the SNAs.

In the specific case of the special needs school at St. Raphael's, St. John of God Brothers in Cellbridge it is proposed to withdraw 4.5 special needs posts from that special school. There are 47 pupils in this school and all of them have been assessed to be in the category of severe to profound. They are in classes of six and they have SNAs at the rate of two pupils to one SNA. If a child has to use the bathroom, gets a fit or becomes disturbed. two SNAs are required to manage that special child. That leaves only one SNA to manage or assist the other five children and that is not possible. If the current proposal goes ahead, that is what will occur with all the consequences for the educational development of the children and their physical safety.

I appeal to the new Minister, Deputy Coughlan, whom I know to a woman with a sympathetic understanding of children with special needs, to review the decision on SNAs generally and in particular to grant the appeal lodged with the SENO in the case of St. Raphael's special needs school. I know the Government is strapped for cash but surely some savings could be found elsewhere other than from the most needy and deserving children. I am depending on the Minister's humanity to correct this unacceptable decision.

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