Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, for attending. I appreciate the difficult task she has in trying to rectify what seems to be a crisis in special needs assistant, SNA, shortages and allocations. At the same time, I must speak up on behalf of the parents of children with special needs. Principals of national schools throughout the country, and in west Cork, seem to be engaged in a constant battle for extra SNA allocation. These principals are already dealing with extra Covid measures such as those announced last night. They must explain to parents why their children must now wear face masks. They are dealing with the prevention of Covid, pods and ventilation and they have an extra battle to get SNA allocation for the students who deserve this help and support. There seems to be a particular problem in and around the Skibbereen area because schools are contacting my office and pleading for help, including Dreeny National School, Caheragh National School, Ballydehob National School, and St. Joseph's National School, Skibbereen. I do not expect the Minister of State to be familiar with each of the schools individually, but there is a major shortage of SNAs in and around this area and the situation is at crisis point.

I will try to outline the difficulties the schools have. I will not name the individual school, but the schools are all in or around the Skibbereen area. One school has a child with Down's syndrome, a child with severe autism and a child with spina bifida. The school has an allocation of 1.83 SNAs. Because of the lack of mobility, the child with spina bifida requires two SNAs to physically lift the child into the hoist apparatus used. That requires approximately two hours of SNA help per day, and it leads to a situation where the principal, who is in the classroom, must look after the other two children with special needs requirements, without any SNA support whatsoever. One of the children is a flight risk. In addition to everything else the principal must deal with; it is not good enough that they are left without support for two hours. This is the type of thing that is happening.

In another two-teacher school, a junior class has two children with significant needs and the senior class also has two children with significant needs. The SNA allocation for the entire school is 0.5. It has been said time and time again that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, seems to have no idea of the reality on the ground for these principals, parents and students. One parent, who is in social housing and is on a low income, has offered to help out financially and pay for extra SNA support.

The final example I will give is a school that has one class with severe and profound difficulties. The SNA allocation for the class is 2.87. There are five students in the class, but two of them have almost no mobility. Again, two of the SNAs must bring those students to the bathroom, leaving the rest of the class in the care of the special needs teacher.

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