Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

We all understand the difficulties and challenges facing families in this day and age in terms of raising and educating children and the extra challenges and difficulties experienced by families who have a child or children with special educational needs. What a joy, relief and sense of satisfaction it must be to these parents that their child with special needs can participate in mainstream education with their brothers, sisters, neighbours, cousins and so on. However, this is possible only through the availability of special needs assistants. I compliment those who have taken up that vocation. It is more than a job; it is a special skill which requires special people who are dedicated, committed and trained to carry out this work. There are more than 400 special needs assistants in my county. If this scheme is abolished a significant number of them will lose their positions and parents will suffer as a result.

I received a letter from a parent of a child with special needs. The child is in junior infants, has autism and is non-verbal. Also, he has little awareness of his own safety. For example, he is not aware of the danger of traffic on roads and needs to have an adult with him at all times to prevent him running across a busy road. A review was carried out in February and in March the principal of the school was notified that the child's special education hours would be reduced by 50%. This means this child will not have a special needs assistant assigned to him on the schoolyard at play times nor will he get the help he needs to eat his lunch. The parents are extremely annoyed and believe this decision to be grossly unfair. The letter states. "Our son's needs have not changed since he started school last September so we do not understand why or how the support of an SNA has been taken from him." This is being replicated many times not alone in County Donegal but throughout the country. How devastating it must be for the parents, teachers and in particular special needs assistants who want the best for children, to have this privilege withdrawn.

The Minister and I have been colleagues for a long time. We have soldiered together. I know she understands the difficulties facing such parents and will be sympathetic to them. I ask the Minister, as she begins her reign as Minister for Education and Skills, to carry out a complete assessment of this scheme and to restore this service to as many people as possible. All we want for these children is the same opportunities afforded to their siblings and peers.

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