Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important issue for debate. I am please the Minister will attend.

Sonas special junior primary school in Carrigaline, County Cork, caters for autistic children between three and six years of age. Late last week, the teachers, parents and everyone associated with the school were devastated when they received the news that the school was going to lose four SNA posts from the beginning of the next school year in September 2012. The school currently has 16 SNA posts and, therefore, the proposal is that it will lose one quarter of its SNA allocation in one fell swoop.

It is important to put on record that this school carries out tremendous work dealing with children who have the most need, including children on the ASD spectrum. Yesterday I met the mother of a five-year old girl attending the school who is non-verbal and not toilet trained. However, along with the 23 other pupils attending the Sonas school, she is now at risk of losing her special needs assistant. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, conducted the review of the special needs assistant, SNA, provision at Sonas and concluded that the school could do with four fewer SNA posts than the current number. This is an outrageous decision. It is an all-out attack on the most vulnerable children in our society. Of the 24 pupils in the school at present, some 14 will leave shortly. Some will progress to mainstream schools and others to special classes in autumn this year. A further 14 children will take their place in Sonas. For children with autism the transition in moving to a new school or starting in a school such as Sonas poses considerable challenges. It is a difficult transition.

The high turnover of pupils in any given year poses huge challenges for the staff who carry out such excellent work in the school. They have made the point to me passionately, as have the parents, that they need the supports and the SNA posts currently allocated. I would have thought that children with the needs those attending Sonas have would all have SNA posts but this is not the position. Typically, the classes comprise six pupils with four SNAs and one teacher. It is proposed that four of the 16 SNA posts will be lost. I understand the financial situation and the situation regarding capping. However, these children have the greatest need and I do not understand how with the stroke of a pen it can be decided that the school can get by with a reduction of one quarter of the SNA support posts currently in place.

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