Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The Minister wrote to schools in March and instructed them to stop allocating resource hours to pupils on foot of the review of the numbers employed in the area of education which was demanded by the IMF. This means that children who have been lucky enough to receive assessments from NEPS and who are obliged to wait months for such assessments will not now get what they are due. The stress that parents and children undergo while awaiting assessments and in dealing with the results thereof will be further exacerbated by the Minister withdrawing children's rights to resource hours.

The Minister stated that it is child abuse not to read to children. Is it not even worse abuse to deny some of the most vulnerable and needy children in society the educational resources they require? It is estimated that approximately 400 additional resource teacher posts will be needed by the end of the year and that 300 of these could go unapproved at a cost of approximately €13.5 million per year. I understand the Minister has recently been made aware that the costs associated with dealing with parents who are fighting legal cases relating to their children's entitlements amount to €14.5 million.

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