Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I relay the apologies of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. While she had hoped to be present, the Deputy will appreciate that, on foot of the change of times, the debate clashed with something else and she is unable to be present. Consequently, I will make this statement on her behalf. I reiterate that she is sorry not to be present because this is an important issue, about which I have spoken to her and the Department.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I advise him that under the existing allocation system, all pupils with Down's syndrome, including such pupils in the mild range, are entitled to receive additional teaching support. Such support is provided either from a school's allocation of learning support or resource teaching hours under the general allocation model, GAM, or from an allocation of additional resource teacher hours allocated to schools by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. It should be noted that, whether resource teaching hours are allocated to schools under the general allocation model or through an allocation made by the NCSE based on an individual assessment of low-incidence special needs, it is a matter for schools to utilise and manage these resources to best provide for the teaching needs of qualifying children. Each school will use its professional judgment to decide how the provision of additional resource teaching time and hours is made to qualifying pupils in the school to ensure all of their individual needs are met. Schools have discretion in how they allocate their general allocation hours to pupils. Whereas schools will have regard to the number of pupils who require additional teaching support in a school, they are not constrained in the number of hours they may allocate to pupils who may have Down's syndrome and may be in the mild range. This is an important clarification because there is some confusion in this regard. I have also met a lot of parents affected by this matter and the Deputy is correct that they need a changed system to be able to ensure they receive exactly the services they need. Schools are encouraged to allocate hours to pupils while taking into account the extent of their individual learning needs. They may also increase the amount of additional teaching time they provide for pupils by using a combination of individualised teaching time with pair and group work.

The NCSE was asked to provide policy advice on the issue of whether Down's syndrome should be reclassified as a low-incidence disability in all instances, regardless of assessed cognitive ability. In its policy advice it stated it could not establish an evidence base to support a recommendation that a child with Down's syndrome be allocated supports over and above those provided for other children with mild learning disabilities or children with other syndromes that also have associated co-occurring conditions. However, it also recommended that under a new resource allocation model proposed by the council, children should be allocated additional resources in line with their level of need, rather than by disability category. This is probably the issue the Deputy is raising in regard to the NCSE's recommendations.

The Deputy will be aware that last week the Minister announced her intention to retain the current model for allocating resource and learning support teachers to schools for the coming school year to ensure sufficient time would be allowed for further consultation to take place with education stakeholders and address a number of outstanding issues before the new model was implemented in schools. As the Deputy stated, the proposal was not perfect either and still required some clarification and tweaking. Concerns were raised on both sides, by people who had concerns about it but also by those who sought to have it brought forward as quickly as possible. It is a balancing act to get it right and I note that the Deputy has made the point that it is important to get it right. I share that view, as does the Minister. While we must get it right and certainly must not put it off indefinitely, to use it for this year and the coming term, it would have been necessary for it to be implemented last week.

The Minister has informed me that some parents and organisations representing children with Down's syndrome continue to have concerns that the existing system does not give them certainty on the number of resource teaching hours that may be allocated to their children under the general allocation model, as these hours are distributed locally by schools. She will take into account these concerns and listen to the views of parents and representative organisations. To clarify, this morning she met representatives of Down Syndrome Ireland, as well as some parents. It was an opportunity for her to discuss their concerns about this issue and she intends to meet more parents in the coming weeks to try to tease it out and talk further about it.

I will ensure the Minister considers all the issues the Deputy raised, as well as the suggestions he made to deal with them. It is an important issue, one which we all want to see corrected. There is no point in rushing the model when all the evidence we need to get it right is not together yet. The message needs to go out that the system has not been put off indefinitely but that it is a matter of tweaking and getting it right. It was not possible to get it in place for the coming September.

See this speech in context