Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputy Fitzmaurice.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a chuid oibre agus a dhúthrachta Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil a chroí san áit cheart agus go bhfuil croíthe fhoireann na Roinne san áit cheart freisin. Tá an t-uafás ama tógtha agus ní raibh sé ceart nach raibh ghuth na ngasúr le cloisteáil in aon áit. Invisible Children is ea teideal na cáipéise a chuireann síos ar chomh deacair is atá sé ó 2019 go dtí an lá atá inniu ann áit a fháil i scoileanna agus is é an cúlra atá leis seo. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil an cáipéis sin ag an Aire. I thank the Minister. I will not repeat that in English, as I have thanked him and his staff in Irish.

In April, I was contacted by the Galway Autism Partnership about July provision. As such, the Department was on ample notice. The Department is under stress and a great deal of effort went into dealing with the leaving certificate, but children with special needs were invisible. Indeed, they and their parents have always struggled to be visible, which was repeated verbatim in this document as regards July provision.

I thank the Minister for his written speech. I have listened to all of the contributions and the Minister discussed the three stands. Despite all of that, however, I am still not entirely clear. While I appreciate that he forewarned us last week that the announcement would be this Friday, I am not sure how the message could change so substantially between now and Friday that he could not give us more detail today.

All I can ask at this point is for the Minister to give absolute clarity on Friday. I am not clear on this so I cannot explain it to people. I am not sure if the July provision is going ahead as is with the extension to children with Down's syndrome in addition to the other courses. Is priority being given to children with special needs, autism and Down's syndrome? Can I go home and say to the people of Galway that they can rely on the July provision going ahead?

I will quickly mention a few other items. I will be writing to the Minister about them but I am seizing this opportunity. If we do not learn from this situation we are simply going to repeat the mistakes of the past. The NPHET committee was not adequate and did not have a broad enough range of experience to look at this issue. There should have been a voice from day one for nursing homes, though that is separate from the Minister's brief, and a voice for special needs.

I refer to universities. I have a letter from a young student who is doing a Master's in medical device design in the National College of Art and Design. It looks like a wonderful course, but it includes a summer project. He and his colleagues do not know if they will be doing that summer project. That is a matter for the Higher Education Authority, HEA, but it is a simple matter that could be clarified very quickly as there are very small numbers involved.

I reiterate that children with special needs are not visible in general. On top of the burden of coping with the Covid crisis, when the schools eventually reopen they will be facing a loss of SNAs. That is despite the Minister's assurances in a statement made in April where he said: "As part of the decision to defer the new allocation model, I am also confirming that no school will receive a lower allocation of SNA support". I have received representations, as I am sure have other Deputies, stating that even if the SNA has not been lost, a substantial number of hours are lost.

Déanaim tagairt do scoil i gcroílár na Gaeltachta, sa Ghaeltacht is mó sa tír. Ní mór dom a rá gurb í an Ghaeltacht is deise sa tír. Tá an scoil seo ag streachailt anois mar go bhfuil na huimhreacha daltaí gasúr nó dhó níos ísle ná an ráta atá leagtha amach. Beidh sí i dtrioblóid. There are no taps in this school. It is trying to prepare for living with Covid and now one of its teachers may be lost. Let us stop this nonsense. Let us have some practical sense and say that as Covid has done enough damage, we are not going to reduce the teachers of any school in the country at the moment, even if they go below the numbers by one or two students. It is not possible. They are going to have to spread out. That particular school has no sinks or taps and the boys have to use the girls' toilets, for various reasons. If that school lost a teacher it would be in serious trouble.

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