Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)

I welcome the Minister's launch last Friday of a national literacy strategy, which will have a major impact on efforts to tackle educational disadvantage. In other jurisdictions they discuss eliminating and the total eradication of illiteracy. That is the type of language one must use in this country. I feel very passionately, having worked in an area of disadvantage for the past 11 years, that education is the great liberator and the overarching approach of the Department of Education and Skills and this Government must be the elimination of illiteracy and educational disadvantage. I know the special needs assistant, SNA, issue inside out. I know, as Deputy Dowds has said, that there were schools in certain areas of the State that were able to buy resources. Where a school has access to private psychological assessments while another is dependent on the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, inevitably what happens is that resources are applied to the school that can buy them and which has access to private assessments while the school, such as the one I taught in, that is dependent on NEPS does not get the same resources. That is an issue. The system has been allowed to go out of all control. No one on this side of the House wants to be in a position where we must defend a cap or talk to SNAs or people who work in schools or their representatives, as I did today. The reality is that if we are trying to target resources at those who need them most, the SNA system has failed in that regard.

Another system that has failed is the general allocation model of special needs hours. I have said a thousand times and have said for the past seven weeks that the general allocation model benefits advantaged children over disadvantaged children because 50% of the resource hours are allocated by the State through the general allocation model which is based on the number of children in a school, not on need. The child in a school of 1,000 students is much more likely to get resource hours than a child in a disadvantaged primary school of 100 children. The system is not working because it is not targeted at those who are most in need assistance. We cannot have an overly emotive view of the SNA and resource hours system without properly analysing whether we are making a real impact in the lives of those who need assistance the most. I have been saying this for years and this is not a political football because we are talking about the children and their needs. I met a delegation from IMPACT and they made some very sensible proposals. I will bring these to the Minister this week and I hope we will be able to get some feedback from him on them.

I wish to comment on making this issue a political football. I think we must be a bit more sensitive about the way we describe each other in this Chamber. Last night somebody in this Chamber called me a hypocrite on this issue. "The Last Word" show with Matt Cooper is still waiting for a return phone call from Deputy Finian McGrath on a debate that I was due to have with him at 6.10 p.m.on Today FM. They are still waiting; the Deputy could not be found. I was ready and willing to debate this issue.

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