Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a serious issue that requires the attention of every Deputy in this House.

Unfortunately, the Tánaiste's response shows that he does not have a clue as to the impact this will have on special needs students from September. Nowhere in his response has he acknowledged that this will lead to a reduction of half an hour for almost every student in receipt of special teaching hours starting in the new Dáil term. If we were to apply the Tánaiste's logic to pensioners, for example, and say that because there are now more pensioners but the budget will remain the same, every pensioner would have to take a 12% cut from September, nobody would agree that that was not anything but a cut.

Regarding mainstream students, the Tánaiste's Government is increasing the number of teachers in the system this September to ensure there are no cuts in standard pupil-teacher ratios.

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