Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for raising these issues.

Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to the system for allocating special needs teachers and the broader issue around assessment, and so forth. My sense of this situation is that we have a more direct route to dealing with special needs in education through the National Council for Special Education. The allocation of resources happens much faster in respect of delivery in the school. The same does not apply in the health service. It seems to be far more opaque regarding the allocation of resources in the health service and the follow-through in that regard in terms of delivery on the ground, if I am honest about it, and I am not happy with that. We must increasingly use the school-based model for therapists. As the Deputy is aware, a pilot scheme was developed some years ago, and that has been effective. The progressing disabilities services, PDS, model is diluting the level of provision in special schools. To be fair, that policy was announced about ten years ago, but it has been slow in the delivery. Some good centres have been created, but the model of a multidisciplinary team on a school campus is one I would like to see more of. That said, there has been a significant expansion of special needs provision in schools for the past 20-odd years, manifested in the thousands of special needs assistants and resource teachers in our schools. Those are the facts. There has also been the creation of autism classes. More needs to be done, however, and it is particularly the case in this area of multidisciplinary teams.

Additionally, and Deputy Murphy raised this issue, I do not want any court cases or protests. There should not have to be protests or court cases in respect of children with special needs. I brought in the Education Act 1998 and automatic enrolment for children with special needs, also in 1998, which was the first time children with autism had a special pupil-teacher ratio, or that any children with special needs had such a ratio. That brought in special classes within mainstream schools and then children within the mainstream classes themselves. Those developments have not followed through at post-primary level. It is crazy there is only one school in Tallaght at post-primary level with an autism class. I envisage a greater role for the ETBs in the provision of special education, especially at post-primary level. Every secondary and post-primary school should play its part in respect of providing for children with special needs. A proper second level curriculum must be provided and there should be an intake of pupils by all schools. This should certainly be resolved based on catchment area. It cannot be left to just one school to provide in this regard. In any event, given the needs of post-primary autism, one school will have a limit to what it can do because of issues with progression, space and facilities.

There have been some very good examples where post-primary schools have embraced this. Recently in Cork, the ETB started a new special school at post-primary level and it has turned out to be a significant success. The ETBs need to play a stronger role across the country in being the patrons of new schools, at post-primary level especially, and to make sure children have rightful progression from primary to post-primary. The same sort of revolution has not happened at post-primary level as has happened at primary level over the past 20 years. That needs to be corrected. That may mean some strengthening of existing legislation that obliges schools and gives the Minister powers to direct schools to take children in.

Deputy Bacik has also raised this issue in the context of the Rainbow Club. I am glad she visited it. It is an example of what can be done outside of the box or outside formal structures to create opportunities for parents and children. It has been a fantastic success over the years. They seem to have an easier capacity to recruit specialist therapists also, even though their facilities are not optimal, if I am honest, as regards the hall and so on in Mahon. They have made a big impact.

On DEIS, I take Deputy Crowe's points about how one assesses deprivation, disadvantage and so on in the modern era, particularly with a much more mobile population. The older designations may not apply to some more mobile residents in a given area. Currently 884 schools and more than 180,000 students benefit from the DEIS programme. The Minister recently announced the expansion of the programme benefiting 347 schools. Some 310 schools will be included in DEIS for the first time, and 37 existing DEIS primary schools are being reclassified and will be eligible for increased supports. That means in the 2022-2023 school year there will be 1,194 schools in the DEIS programme, serving in excess of 240,000 students. That is one in four students in a disadvantaged scheme, to give additional weighting and teacher allocations and supports to the schools. That is a €32 million increase in the Department's expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023 onwards, the largest single investment ever undertaken by a Government in the DEIS programme. The programme was started by Fianna Fáil many years ago. I am glad to see it is getting such an expansion.

In response to Deputy Barry, again I am not aware of the individual concerned but there has to be proper understanding and empathy in issues pertaining to trans people and the whole LGBTQI community. Legislation is one dimension but the most important dimension is the curriculum reform that is currently under way by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

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