Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

Recent months have been marked by the removal of special needs assistants, SNAs, from schools. We have all been lobbied by teachers but when the parents come and when it is about the child, that is when we should sit up and take notice. I commend Deputy Brian Hayes for tabling this motion which is well-intentioned and timely.

The most disappointing element of this year's budget was the 21% cut in funding for the National Council for Special Education Needs. This was the clearest indication of the intent of the Department of Education and Science with regard to children with educational special needs. The former Minister for Education and Science, closed 128 special classes in 2009. I listened to the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Haughey. Is he seriously saying there is no longer a need for special classes to the extent that 128 can be closed down? Some of those classes were retained under review and on appeal.

Our attitude towards children with special needs and their prospects, have changed beyond recognition. I accept that significant strides have been made in the education of children with special needs. The days of them sitting at the back of the class playing with plasticine are over and gone and they should stay gone.

A small group of adults with special needs recently graduated from Trinity College. Such achievements are few and far between but they achieved third level education and this is what should be possible for all children with special needs. Tonight's debate is about children who are still in primary school. The debate about second level education has to take place another time. Those in primary school desperately need assistance. The Minister makes a very clear distinction between teaching assistants and SNAs but we all know that SNAs perform a range of functions. They know the child, they are wedded to the child for whom they care and the child knows them. If special schools and special classes are being closed down, then the only other place for these children is within mainstream classrooms. It is not just a case of children with an intellectual disability. There are children who need additional help to achieve their best potential, so that they can come out of primary school, go on to secondary school and with the right type of supports, go on to third level. We must ensure that children who in the past were ignored are allowed fulfil their potential, play an active role in society and have a good, healthy life.

The Minister informed us that all of these schools were individually reviewed as were all the children. She said the senior special education needs organisers decided on the cutback in numbers but they worked in conjunction with the school, the teacher, the child, the parent and the SNA. That is not true. That did not happen.

I will tell the House about one little boy whose name is Jack. He is a typical child with special educational needs. There are a thousand such children around the country. Jack's disability is that he does not speak. His SNA learned sign language and adapted it to Jack's needs. She used sign language to ask him if he needed to use the toilet or if he wished to eat his lunch. She gave him a new lease of life through this communication. She learned sign language in her own time and she adapted it to his needs because he has a very specific disability. The principal of that school told me that Jack reached par with his classmates within months and his whole life brightened. However, his SNA was last into the school so she was first out. I do not believe the senior special education needs organisers went to the schools and asked what were the specific needs of the children. They did not do that. They went in and said that if the school had five SNAs they only needed four. Unfortunately, the four that remain do not have sign language and Jack does not know them. This is typical of what is happening all over the country.

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