Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Given that we have allocated 10,490 posts, 70 posts remain for allocation during the school year while additional posts may be freed up during the year where pupils do not enrol in schools or where care needs diminish. My Department will also provide further clarity to schools in the coming months on the role of SNAs in schools in accordance with the recommendations contained in the recently received NCSE policy advice and the recommendations contained in my Department's value-for-money and policy review of the SNA scheme.

Resource teachers are fully qualified teaching staff who provide additional support for children with learning difficulties or special educational needs. While they are a separate and distinct category of educational support from special needs assistants, allocations of resource teachers are made in tandem with SNA allocations to provide certainty to schools on their staffing levels. The Government has also protected the number of available resource teaching posts in our education system. As in the case of SNAs, the overall number of available resource teachers has not been reduced by the Government in any shape or form since March 2011. However, the demand for resource teaching hours has dramatically increased which has posed challenges for the allocation model in recent years. Last week, the NCSE advised me that demand for resource teachers had risen over the last year by some 12%. Indeed, there has been an increase in the demand for resource teachers by 25% over the last four years, while demographic growth has meant an increase of only 5% in the overall school population in the same period. In effect, we have been asked to do more with less in terms of how we deploy the extensive resource teaching provision in our education system.

This morning, I announced that I was authorising the NCSE to allocate resource teachers to students with special educational needs on the same basis and at the same level as last year. I also announced the appointment with immediate effect of Mr. Eamonn Stack to chair a working group, which has been established to develop proposals for a new model for allocating resources and supports in schools. The working group has been established by the National Council for Special Education, which is chaired by Mr. Stack. The working group, which will include parents, will begin its work immediately. It will report to me in September with preliminary views on how to reform the system of allocation of the substantial additional educational resources for pupils with special educational needs. I have also asked the NCSE to urgently probe the reasons for the unprecedented 12% rise in applications for resource teacher support this year. The rate of increase compares with an annual 1.3% increase in the number of students attending school. I have grave concerns about the scale of the surge in demand for resource teachers this year relative to the growth in the student population. It is very important to obtain a clear understanding of the underlying causes for this unprecedented level of increase.

The NCSE has recently provided me with a comprehensive report on supporting students with special educational needs in schools. In its report, the NCSE has acknowledged the State's significant investment in providing supports for students with special educational needs over the past decades, which has transformed the ability of schools to educate such pupils. However, the report also makes clear there are significant disadvantages to the current system. There is evidence the current model used to allocate resources is deeply flawed. It is creating an inequitable distribution of resource teaching hours. Pupils with special educational needs in some schools in better-off areas get more support than those from disadvantaged areas. For these reasons, I accept the advice of the NCSE on the need to develop the new allocation model to which I have referred.

The additional costs associated with the allocation of additional posts will have to be met from within my Department's budget and will create significant budgetary pressures which will have to be addressed by the Department in budget 2014 and beyond. I reassure parents that children will not be disadvantaged while we move towards the new model which will ensure greater fairness and quality of education for children with special educational needs. This is an area that I have passionately defended since coming into office, despite the claims of the Opposition Deputies, during which time I have succeeded in protecting the very substantial funding currently spent in the area.

Some €1.3 billion will be spent this year in support of children with special educational needs. It is equivalent to the amount the Government spends on the Garda Síochána or the on the entire higher education system. Media commentators over the weekend remarked that, ten years after the Special Olympics were held in Ireland, we were starting to regress in terms of our provision and support for those with disabilities. I can appreciate why some people feel that way and I acknowledge the sentiments. However, that analysis is a little simplistic. We must be honest with ourselves and give a true account of the situation. For too long, the supports given to those with special educational needs in this country were far and few between. That was wrong and it was right that this should change, but in 2013 we spend €1.3 billion on supports. Much progress has been made but sometimes one gets the impression that nothing has changed. This level of investment represents approximately 15% of the entire educational budget of the Department, which is €8.3 billion. It is quite simply an enormous sum and it has been ring-fenced during the four difficult years since Fianna Fáil decided to inextricably link our country's fortunes with the gambling debts of bankers and property speculators. We heard quite a lot about it today. This week's revelations about the goings on in Anglo Irish Bank during that period are a timely reminder of why the party opposite has no credibility on handling this country's public finances in a trustworthy manner. Quite simply, the recklessness of Fianna Fáil in government has jeopardised all the social advances this country has made in the past 20 years. This Government is working hard to ensure this does not happen.

This Government has been absolutely committed to protecting the level of investment being made to support children with special educational needs at a time when there has been a requirement to make expenditure reductions across a range of areas. It is an area of spending that has been prioritised above all other areas by this Government despite the enormous pressures on all areas of public spending. The level of expenditure provided means the majority of pupils with special educational needs can continue to be educated in an inclusive environment in mainstream schools along with their peers. I am pleased to be in a position to maintain the allocation at existing levels. I want to ensure that support for children can be maintained while we move towards the new allocation model recommended by the recently published NCSE policy advice on supporting children with special educational needs in schools. I commend the amendment to the motion to the House.

See this speech in context