Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I am proud of our achievements regarding special needs in recent years. We have taken people to the top of a mountain and have shown them the opportunities on the other side. However, the Government is making sure they go down the same side of the mountain.

The motion before the House simply asks that we go back to basics and get the criteria right. We recognise it is 17 years since the SERC put criteria in place and that much has changed. We recognise that the independent report, available on the NCSE website, shows the complication in schools today. Children from complex and varied backgrounds are entering school communities and all kinds of behavioural issues must be contended with. The notion that we can put children into very simple boxes - the mild, the acute and the rest - is not valid. Children come in various forms. We have come a long way in 17 years and the motion, by way of the review we propose, seeks to redress the problems that arise.

I, as one of the Opposition spokespersons on education, have not mentioned the school in my constituency because it would lead to the charge of my being parochial, but I will speak about St. Joseph's Special School in Balrothery in Tallaght. The four people who were given their marching orders last week under the NCSE review are present in the Gallery. They are great people and do an extraordinary job. We are now making the people who do an extraordinary job redundant. We are breaking the relationship they have with those children and that school community and we are going to put them back on the dole. What about that for joined-up Government?

In the same school, at the very first public meeting we had on this, a very brave man stood up and said: "I can't read or write, I have two children in this school, and by God what happened to me will not happen to them." What we have done to special needs people in this country is the result of years of neglect. Bear in mind the extraordinary story Deputy Barrett told during the debate, as regards how an intervention can change the life of one person. This is not a matter of whether we want more or less SNAs, but rather of recognising that there cannot be inclusion without SNAs. That is exactly what this motion is about.

In conclusion, I believe the NCSE is doing the Government's dirty work for it. I believe the NCSE has been told to cut back. We know that 353 have been cut back, so how many more will there be by the end of the year?

We know this is happening. At a time when more children are coming into schools with all the variety of assessments that are needed, how is this possible at this stage that we have less? I do not believe the propaganda from the Government and I very much hope, even at this late stage in the debate, that some backbench Members will abstain on the Government amendment tonight. That, more than anything else, will send a positive signal to the effect that the policy of the Government and the NCSE is wrong for children, education and the future of this country.

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