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

I thank the Minister for her reply. There is no doubt that there are serious problems with the provision of learning support and resource hours, in particular with the distribution of the latter which are based on assessments carried by a NEPS psychologists or on private psychological assessments which parents have arranged for their children because they have grown tired and are unwilling to wait any longer for an assessment by NEPS.

I note that the Minister expects the pilot to be successful. I ask her to elaborate on the pilot project and outline how many schools are involved. I note that in recent media reports the Minister has made it clear that there will be no reduction in the number of resource teachers available to any of the schools participating in the pilot. The concern surrounding the new model is that teachers will be taken from some schools and reassigned to others and in effect, the Minister will be robbing Peter to pay Paul because there is no plan to increase the overall number of resource teachers. I cannot get my head around how the Department can run a pilot project while also ensuring that no school sees a reduction in its resources. Ultimately, that goes against what the Minister is seeking to implement.

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