Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I congratulate the new Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Coughlan, on her recent appointment. The appointment brings with it the opportunity for a much needed rethink on the issue before the House tonight. The current strategy of the Department of Education and Science in removing special needs assistants throughout the education system is causing havoc and must be stopped at once. It is simply wrong and unfair and the Minister has an opportunity to right that wrong tonight.

It is time the Department of Education and Science started to listen to what is going on in schools all over the country. It is time that the voice of parents of special needs children was listened too. It is time for a fresh start. That start could begin tonight by this House accepting this motion and freezing the current review of SNAs. It must also start with a new attitude from the new Minister for Education and Science, which I hope we see tonight. This is an emotive issue.

Children with special educational needs were for far too long ignored within Irish education. In recent years we have come a long way. New legislation and new resources have made it possible to offer parents a chance that their child can be in a mainstream class like anyone else. Children with recognized mental, physical, sensory or intellectual disabilities have found a new home within our primary and post-primary education system. It is estimated that more than 190,000 children with special needs are in Irish education. As the school population grows and as further assessments are made that number will increase over the short to medium term. The demand is rising, not falling.

The choice is not between wanting more or fewer SNAs, rather, it is whether we want inclusion in Irish education. That is the fundamental choice and issue at the heart of this debate. One cannot have inclusion without SNAs. As the Government reduces the number of SNAs, so too does it reduce inclusion in Irish education. We do not have a choice if we are to respect the legislative and moral responsibility to include special needs children in our education system.

Yesterday, this State once again bailed out the banking system with mind boggling amounts of money. That money belongs to you and me and to future generations who will have to pay it back at some time in the future. At a time when we are recapitalizing the banks, is it not morally indefensible that the Government stands over the abolition of SNAs to the most vulnerable children in Irish education? That is what is happening in mainstream and special schools all over this country. I want this debate to clearly set a marker for the National Council for Special Education which is currently reviewing the number of SNAs.

The Minister, Deputy Coughlan; and those who support the Government in this House should stop hiding behind the NCSE. They should stop running for cover as they let an unelected body make the wrong decisions over and over again. I regret saying this, but the truth is the performance of the NCSE at the most recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Science was not only pathetic as key questions went unanswered, but highlighted that the review from the start was hopelessly inconsistent. On that occasion Government and Opposition Deputies and Senators spoke with one voice.

I expect authorities established and funded by this House to answer directly questions that Members of the Oireachtas want answered. That did not happen two weeks ago and it was an absolute disgrace. It is now time this House came together in supporting this motion tonight and stopping what is clearly a defective review. Ultimate accountability must be seen in this House and we should not allow a quango or an unelected body to make decisions of this magnitude in our schools. We are ultimately responsible to the Irish people for the actions we take and those taken by other bodies

The Minister has the power to do something that her predecessor singularly failed to do - start listening to teachers and parents on the ground. How can the Minister, or anyone else for that matter, stand over SNAs being removed in the middle of a school year? Some schools have seen dramatic reductions in SNAs with four months to go before the end of the school year. A lot of time goes into developing relationships and trust with children with special needs and they often find change difficult and confusing. Halting the current review is essential in order that some credibility in the decision making process can be restored.

Our motion freezes the current review and demands that we revisit the SERC criteria of 1993 before re-establishing the review. Much has changed in 17 years and too many schools believe that a narrow and restrictive interpretation of the criteria is being made on a daily basis by the NCSE. Even in 17 short years much has changed in schools. Schools are more complicated and sometimes very challenging behaviour from children must be dealt with. How can the Government stand over the review when it has been proven to be so defective? In effect, the review was changed midstream as initially no appeals system was in place to challenge the decisions of SENOs locally. Now we have an appeals system that is not independent, as senior people within the NCSE review the decisions of local SENOs. How can anyone stand over the independence of that appeals system?

Any court in the land would drive a coach and four through any argument made by the NCSE or the Department of Education and Science on the question of the consistency of the report as it applies to children, when it manifestly changed on two occasions during the life of the review. There is a judicial review just waiting to happen and I would not like to be the Department of Education and Science in defending such cases, if and when they come before the courts. Our motion demands that where an SNA was removed to date it should automatically follow that a proper, independent review be held which would, in effect, allow a look back on the decisions already taken. This is the least we should expect from the system.

The failure of the Government to implement the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and to publish a costed multi-annual plan as promised in the renewed programme for Government once again highlights the priorities of the Department of Education and Science. The Act was supposed to be the legislative basis for supporting children with special needs in Irish education before it was thrown overboard by the Minister's predecessor. Deputy Stanton will speak further on this during the course of the debate.

We will also need special schools and indeed special classes within mainstream education for many years to come. Last year the Minister for Education and Science effectively knocked out over 100 special classes in mainstream schools before the NCSE was able to formally advise the Minister. The latest research from the NCSE on special classes and special schools paints a very different picture from the rationale for closure the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, painted to the House last year. What is most appalling about special schools, and their role with the system, is the dramatic reductions that many of these schools have experienced in SNA supports. Some have been subject to a 40% reduction SNA support in the middle of the school year. In reducing the SNA supports to these schools, the Department is saying to their children that they should find a school elsewhere.

Yesterday, the Government saved the banks with billions of real money. As that was happening the SNA review continued all over this country, cutting back on people who make inclusion work in schools. Our young people did not create this mess, yet they are being asked to shoulder a heavy burden for the mistakes of others. How anyone can stand over the deliberate and systematic demolishing of special needs supports to our children is beyond comprehension. Tonight, we have a chance to make a stand. Deputy Coughlan, as a new Minister for education, has an opportunity to listen to Members, something her Department and her predecessor have not done. I hope we use the debate to begin that process.

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