Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Throughout the State, schools, teachers and parents are unsure whether their children with special educational needs will have access to special needs assistants in the morning. A review has been ongoing and has already cut somewhere in the region of 200 to 300 special needs assistants, but the cuts figure could reach 1,200. We do not know the exact figure of how many have already been cut, because the Minister and representatives of the National Council for Special Education have been unable or unwilling to give us the figure.

As public representatives we have all had constituents coming to us concerned for the future education of their son or daughter with a special need. It should not be necessary for any parent to have to come to a public representative to make a desperate plea for assistance. This unfair and crude review by the Minister of State and the Minister for Education and Science of special needs assistants in mainstream and special schools will have a vast negative impact on vulnerable children. Special needs assistants are recruited specifically to assist in the care of pupils with disabilities in an educational context. The SNA plays an indispensable role in meeting such needs by assisting with toileting, feeding, personal hygiene, mobility, medical procedures, communication and in supporting behaviour modification such that the child can access and benefit from the primary school curriculum.

There is a concern that reductions in the numbers of SNAs in schools will cause increased and unmanageable levels of behaviour in classrooms resulting in disruptions to teaching and learning for all involved. If a child does not receive an appropriate education taking account of his or her individual strengths or needs, he or she may be marginalised within the school community and in society in general. There are implications for the mental health of children whose individual needs are not met and whose individual strengths are not developed. Their opportunities for success are not experienced and their anxiety is not managed.

Studies show that children with a learning disability are at a higher risk of mental health difficulties than children who do not have a disability. The reduction in the level of SNAs in our schools will remove the child from the hub of the teaching and learning process and dilutes the philosophy of our primary education system, which enshrines and espouses a child-centred curriculum for all pupils including those with special needs. I believe the legal entitlement for pupils with special educational needs to have the same right to avail of and benefit from appropriate education will be denied if there are reductions in the numbers of SNAs. An appropriate education is one which reflects individual strengths and needs and sets long-term goals and short-term objectives. It results from a collaboration among parents, school staff, other professionals and the child. An appropriate education recognises that if basic needs are not met, the child will not meet his or her potential.

Reductions in SNA numbers and the manner in which it has been undertaken will, I believe, make the legal entitlement of pupils to leave school with skills necessary to participate to the level of their capacity and in an inclusive way in the social and economic activities of society unattainable. Pupils' care needs will not be met and therefore personal growth and fulfilment will not be achieved. Levels of challenging behaviour will escalate resulting in increased injury to pupils and staff and pupils will be at increased risk of developing mental health difficulties. At the crux of this is the fact that children's lives are being disrupted. The damage done now will have a vast impact in the years to come.

The Minister of State and the Minister in absentia should note that serious questions need to be answered with regard to this issue. How many special needs assistant posts have already been lost in the past year? Will the Minister of State give us that information before the conclusion of the debate? How many more does the Minister of State anticipate or plan will be lost? Will schools which have lost an SNA or a special class be provided with additional special needs supports? What additional resources will be provided to schools which have lost special needs supports? These are questions that need to be answered. The pupils most affected by such cuts as well as their parents, teachers and school communities deserve no less than this information and what we actually require is the restoration of the posts already taken and a review of the additional supports that most assuredly must be invested in our education system.

The outdated review criteria and the absence of an independent appeals process speaks volumes of the motives behind this review. I speak of an independent appeals process. How is it fair that a child loses his or her SNA? Until recently, there was no way of appealing this decision. It is the case that there are opportunities to appeal now but only to the NCSE, National Council for Special Education. This is in no way independent and is patently unfair.

These cuts simply cannot be justified, especially given the context of large class sizes, some as high as 30 pupils to one teacher. Cuts have already been implemented such as that to the resource grant and home-school liaison teachers. A child with a special need in a mainstream class without adequate support would surely get lost in the system as many have done throughout the decades when no supports were in place. It is unacceptable to deny a child the chance of a proper education and a proper chance in life for the sake of a few million euro. Let there be no mistake about it, that sum of money could be found elsewhere as Deputies on the Opposition benches have outlined time after time. I have it to say that for a few million euro what is actually being done and visited on young people and their families in terms of the present and their futures is truly disgraceful. This is taking place in the context of the further robbery of the taxpayer this week as we witnessed here from what was outlined yesterday to prop up a zombie bank. It is nothing short of obscene.

The Tánaiste and recently appointed Minister for Education and Science must now start looking at the provision of special needs assistants as more than a financial matter. These are real children not numbers. They are vulnerable children at that and do not deserve to be shoved from pillar to post as part of an accounting exercise. Cuts to special needs support is not only heartless, but the move will seriously impair these children's education for years to come and will have serious knock-on effects in the future. It is yet another example of this Government's short-sighted cost-cutting measures. Special needs assistants are not a luxury that can be cut. They are essential and, I emphasise, an integral part of the education system.

Let us remind ourselves for a moment of the week in which this debate is taking place. The Minister's party calls itself a republican party. The proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916, that we remember this week in particular, pledged to "cherish all the children of the nation equally". A children with special needs has a right to a decent education and a decent start in life as much as any other child and it is a bounden responsibility on Government to ensure that is delivered.

I appeal to the new Minister for Education and Science, who is the Tánaiste, and to the Government collectively not to proceed with further cuts to special needs support and to reinstate support that has already been removed. That commitment is the least we expect from this debate and, as I have already stated, there is a need then for a review not in terms of what cuts can be applied, but of what additional supports and resources can be provided to ensure that every child gets an equal start in life.

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