Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome much of what was in the Minister of State's statement. As my colleague Deputy Ó Laoghaire has said, we recognise that efforts have been made to resolve many of the issues that have been there for so long for many families who have children with various levels of disability.

The issue raised with us most often relates to special needs assistants in schools. In recent weeks, a young man from Drumshanbo contacted me about his son who is starting school soon. He said the school, St. Patrick's National School, which is a mainstream school, has 1.83 SNAs. His son has muscular dystrophy and he will need a lot of attention. The two SNAs that are in the school are already working with three other children in the school. The man has to apply for a special exemption review to look for an additional SNA. The point he makes is the system is clearly broken when that is the case. We need to have a much better way of assuring children and parents in particular that the service will be in place at the outset when they send their child to school. They should not be doing it in the current manner. One of the issues that needs to be examined is how to bring the system up to date so that it deals with people efficiently and effectively from the very start.

The Minister of State has gone through many of the other issues, for example, in regard to the provision of special classes. Several school principals have been in contact with me, including the local school, Carrigallen National School, in County Leitrim, which has an application for an extension for another special class. It already has one and there is a second one in place. It is looking to expand the criteria that are in place at present because some of them are very tight and difficult for them. There needs to be an openness to deal with each school individually, in particular if a school is prepared and is looking to the future. In fairness, that particular school, like many others, is looking to the future and it sees that what it is doing now will not be enough in seven or eight years' time and that it will need to apply again. Rather than coming back with another application for another extension or new building in seven or eight years' time, if it could be done the first time with a bit of extra space in place and if additional resources were put in place to do that, it would save the State a lot of money.

Another issue that comes to mind is the qualifications, which Deputy Ó Laoghaire mentioned. Many people set out to become SNAs and discover it is difficult and onerous. We need to re-examine that as a matter of urgency. It is not something that will take a long time to do and it could happen quickly if the effort is put in to do so.

Another issue was raised recently by a woman who has a practice in Drumshanbo. Her name is Anne Bohan and she runs her own private clinic, Assist Dyslexia. She works with children with dyslexia and she sent me a message in recent days:

Why are individual readers in exam being replaced by a helper for several students who will read occasional words or sentences? There seems to be a complete dismantling of support for Dyslexic kids at primary and second level. I have a copy of the letter one student received saying that's what has been granted.

In other words, a child with dyslexia in the past would have had a reader to assist him or her with the exams, but now the reader could be assisting several children. The system is not working. It cannot work. The experience of families is clearly set out in the letter. What families understand now is there is a withdrawal of support, yet when the Department is contacted it states supports are in place as normal for children with dyslexia when they are doing their exams. It is clear the support has been dispersed among several children and the reader who was previously available for one child has to work with several children. That is simply not appropriate. I think the Minister of State would acknowledge that needs to be examined.

The overall picture is that the experience of many families who have a child with a disability of whatever kind, such as autism or the various other issues that come to mind, is they have to fight every inch of the way. The Minister of State might acknowledge that is what most families tell us. We need to change that fundamentally. A child with special educational needs will have difficulties in life in general and families need to work hard to do their best for their child, but the State should be there to assist them, not to try to block them and hold them back. There are too many people in positions in various agencies who believe their job is to block anybody from getting anything rather than assisting them to get it. That attitude needs to change as well. I say to the Minister of State the leadership must come from the top. She has a role in that regard and, in fairness to her, she is taking the role seriously, but we have not seen it play out at the bottom yet. There are many experiences parents relay to us of situations they have come up against where the system just says "No". That is not good enough and it needs to be examined and changed.

The issues are wide and varied. They are also about pre-planning and making sure we have planning in place to have enough services in place for the future. There is good work being done. I pay tribute to the many people who work in the services, who do great work and who are committed to helping children and to liaising with families and working with them, but we still have a long distance to go.

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