Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. This service offers a wide range of supports with regard to behavioural and emotional difficulties, critical incidents in schools and in meeting the needs of vulnerable children. The service also has an important role in providing educational assessments and necessary reports in order to assist schools in identifying the needs of individual pupils with special educational needs. Under the current system these assessments are critical so children can access basic and vital supports and resources to pursue the best education.

The Education Acts say that every child in the State should be entitled to a high quality education, but how can they attain a high quality education when there are not the necessary supports in place? It makes no sense. The practice we have is certainly not in accordance with the Acts. Since 2010 we have seen a cut in funding to the service from €22.5 million to €18.25 million in 2016. It was ironic that only yesterday in the Chamber we had Deputy Micheál Martin crying crocodile tears about the lack of funding for NEPS services, when it was Fianna Fáil that cut the services in the first place when it was in power. Fianna Fáil, despite all its spin, bluster and meaningless waffle, will facilitate the ongoing lack of investment by supporting budget 2017.

The cuts in funding to the NEPS service have had a huge impact on children. As a former acting school principal I know only too well the frustration of trying to secure resources for children under our current system. I know the difficulties that schools face in choosing between the students with regard to resources. We are told that we can only refer one or two children for assessment in a particular year. I have felt the frustration and sheer disappointment of knowing that a child could achieve so much, and could achieve his or her potential with the right, basic supports. They cannot access these supports if there is not an assessment report in place, so the report is needed. We have a cruel situation where parents and schools that can afford it send the children for private assessments.

Not every parent or every school has this luxury. Children from disadvantaged communities are left behind and in some cases they wait years for the proper supports and they fall behind and fall through the cracks in our education system. I have raised the issue on a number of occasions, most recently last week in the Chamber. The budget, supported by Fianna Fáil, allocates no additional funding to this vital service in 2017. How can the Minister possibly justify the lack of additional funding for this service in this year's budget?

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