Beverley Flynn (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

That is correct. I wish to share time with my colleagues, Deputies Paul Gogarty, Charlie O'Connor and Margaret Conlon.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. My job as a Government Deputy is to influence Government policy and to try to effect change to that policy where I believe change is required.

As Deputies will be aware, I represent Mayo and St. Anthony's special school in Castlebar has been very much central to this debate, both nationally and locally. There are two areas on which I want to focus in particular. I ask that the new Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Coughlan, focus on these two issues and effect change to the policy as it currently stands. I believe it is change that can happen without any great difficulty and I ask that she consider these matters carefully.

SENOs carry out reviews every year in special schools - they carried one out in St. Anthony's in September last. They carry out that review based on the criteria set out, and those criteria have not changed. It is the exactly the same criteria that is being used in the national review being carried out at present. As a public representative, I find it hard to understand how, within a period of four months in which the same criteria were being used, such a change could have resulted in two SNAs losing their jobs.

My big problem with this particular issue, which I have articulated at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science, is that for a school to plan and organise its activities, and for parents, teachers and the children themselves to be able to have any sort of order in their lives, they need to know that when a SENO carries out a review, it is good for 12 months. That is not an unreasonable expectation. It is unacceptable to me that SNAs would be withdrawn from schools mid-year.

Towards the end of February an appeal process was introduced into the system. I will speak briefly about that shortly because the second change I want relates to it. We are now in a position where approximately 100 schools have asked to be allowed enter the appeal process. They must give five working days' notice to signal that they want an appeal in the first place. Then the SENO must give them their result in writing and they have ten working days to get the appeal forms out to them so that the school can act in that regard. After that, it takes 20 working days for another SENO within the NCSE to go over the appeal concerned.

There is a reason I am going through all of this - I am sorry to labour the point. However, it is Easter and given that many of these schools are in the appeals process and there are these periods of five, ten and 20 working days, if they get a successful decision at that stage, it would be fantastic. If, however, they do not, they must give four weeks' notice to their SNAs in any event for them to vacate their jobs by which time we will be at the summer period.

I am asking - it is not an unreasonable request at this stage in the game - that the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Science take this on board and adopt a reasonable approach. Schools are now notifying the NCSE as to who is leaving and what the enrolments will be by May of this year. It would be possible to carry out the next review in the summer for the next year, and in September schools can start the school year with the correct allocation. This is a timing issue. It would give much comfort to schools at this stage if they were told that the SNAs will be left there, this is the situation that will apply until the summer and we will look at the matter again at the start of the school year in the autumn.

Although there is much to say in the debate, the second point I want to make in the short time available relates to the appeal mechanism. I would find fault with the fact that the appeal mechanism was only introduced in February. I am lucky enough in that St. Anthony's special school is able to get into the appeal process, but there are many other schools. I speak for all special schools and, indeed, any school around the country which had its SNA withdrawn before the appeal process was in place-----

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