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

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this motion tonight. It is far too common for issues with special needs education to arise. The assertion from the Proclamation read by our forefathers to cherish all the children of the nation equally is definitely not carried through today. Education is just another aspect that brings unnecessary difficulty in the lives of special needs children and their parents. More than 3,567 children were waiting for assessment of need at the end of March this year. The immense pressure that is left on parents to find adequate education for their children is an added stress for them.

The Government must engage with schools and teachers to address the shortfalls in resources on many fronts. I am on the board of management of my local national school. In particular, there is an extreme shortage of SNAs for our Irish teaching schools and this must be addressed to protect our Irish language and give those with physical disabilities a chance to learn the language.

Integration between children and children with special needs has major benefits in the learning and understanding of every child. Disengagement of special needs children has a catastrophic effect on them and where they have a place in school, it tends to be on a reduced timetable. This simply is not good enough.

Carrying on from that, the Government needs to revise the general capitation grant. The grants cover the day-to-day running costs like heating, lighting, insurance, general upkeep and the purchase of teaching materials. It is totally insufficient to cover the current cost of schooling and forces schools to go out with buckets collecting money on the side of the street. This is not what schools' boards of management should be doing, but they have no choice. The Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, has demanded that the Government fully restore the primary school capitation grant to the 2010-2011 level of €200 per pupil. The minimal increase of the capitation grant by €9 in last year's budget does not go far enough. The INTO general secretary, John Boyle, said the increase was already spent due to rising insurance and energy costs, and is only a plaster on the wound.

Another issue in primary school education is the pressure that is put on teaching principals who cannot cope with both the duties of a teacher, with homework and all the paperwork that goes with teaching, as well as the paperwork in the role of a school principal. The Government needs to look into this urgently as the workload becomes too great. This is again an issue that disproportionately affects rural schools with a small student population and only a handful of teachers in the school as a whole.

I support Fianna Fáil's motion calling on the Government to ensure that every child with a special education need has that need met before September of this year, so we can truly live up to the Proclamation and cherish all the children of the nation equally.

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