Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am continuously meeting with people in my own constituency area who come to me pleading for help as they are afraid they will not get a special needs assistant for their child. It is a disgrace that any parent has to go through this stress to provide an adequate education for his or her child. We will not stand for it on this side. Others may, but we will not. I have had many school principals and boards of management approaching me to relay to me the amount of time they have to spend each year making applications for special needs assistants support for their schools.

These school principals and boards of management are already under serious time pressures and this is only adding to the problem. The application process for special needs assistants needs to be reviewed urgently. It is a big obstacle preventing the full participation of special needs assistants in schools. The Rural Independent Group and I are calling on the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, and the Government to provide job security to special needs assistants by providing permanent employment contracts. At the moment, if a special needs assistant is in a substitute capacity, that is covering for maternity leave, sick leave, a career break, job sharing, etc., this does not count toward obtaining the requisite one year of service that allows a special needs assistant to become a member of the supplementary panel.

We call for a review of the special needs assistant supplementary assignment panel arrangements. Substitute work should be taken into consideration to enable all special needs assistants to gain entry to the panel. We also need to give certainty to parents. No parent should have to undergo the stress and worry around whether he or she will be assigned a special needs assistant for his or her child. We need change and I honestly hope that the Minister will seriously take on board our suggestions and will move to adopt policies to address the deficit we have identified in the SNA system. We will not be quietened or allow misleading comments about our contribution to this issue and other issues in respect of the same matter. I work on the board of management of a school and I work tirelessly to make sure we can address an issue like this going forward. I am delighted that we are bringing forward this motion tonight.

See this speech in context