Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I hope the changes proposed - let us call them cuts - will be reviewed and postponed.

Deputy Paul Gogarty made the point that we have been assured by the NCSE that it is reviewing the situation and that the conclusion may be that these schools will get extra staff. As the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Education and Science stated, that is absolute nonsense. I do not understand it. I ask the Minister in her first days in the Department to examine the challenge this issue presents.

Other colleagues have referred to the high level of co-operation across the floor. Private Members' business is sometimes difficult and with my hand on my heart I can tell Deputies that tonight's debate is difficult for me. The Government benches is a lonely place for such a debate in respect of the decisions we must take.

I hope the Minister will listen to the genuine concerns expressed. Let us not play politics; let us try to get the message across. I said I have a concern about all the schools but I have a particular focus on St. Joseph's Special School in Balrothery, which caters for pupils aged four to 18 with a mild general learning disability. I am told the pupil teacher ratio is 11:1. The school has 89 pupils and its staff includes an administrative principal. Without being patronising, I do not know if Mr. Brendan Hennigan is still in the Visitors Gallery but I wish to pay tribute to him. He has dealt with the public representatives in Dublin South-West in a very fair way. All Deputies have been to the meetings, as has the local mayor, Councillor Mick Duff, and other colleagues and Mr. Hennigan has acted in a fair way. He knows this is a difficult issue for me and I appreciate the correspondence and advice from him. The protest outside the Department of Education and Science was very demanding for him and I am glad we were able to help. There are 15 teachers in the school, including four teachers who provide special subject hours and 17 SNAs.

As part of the review of SNA posts in schools, the NCSE reviewed staffing levels and the level of care needs in the school. It advised the school four SNA posts should be suppressed with effect from 19 February. The principal, Mr. Hennigan, tells me that, following a review, the NCSE requested that SNAs should be reduced from 17 to 13 by 2 April. The board of management decided at its meeting on Thursday that it had no choice but to issue notice of termination to eight special needs assistants. They have been advised since to defer four of those terminations pending the outcome of the recent review. I support the principal, who makes the point that it is no way to run a school to take on staff and then make changes to the situation. I appeal to the Minister to examine this in a special way.

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