Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all glad we are having these statements again. I sit on the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science with Deputies Ó Ríordáin and Ó Laoghaire. I listening to the Deputies' contributions and that of the Minister of State. We all acknowledge that we have a record number of SEN teachers, SNAs and ASD classes. All these big figures are great but the Minister of State made the point that numbers and statistics do not matter and that what matters are individuals without a school or an appropriate school place. Despite all the big figures and major investment of €2 billion in the Department of Education budget, there are still gaps and shortfalls in accommodating many students. We need to acknowledge that.

I will raise a number of points and I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would address them. I will try to focus first on the lack of ASD class provision in certain areas. I do not want to go on a geographical journey where I will embarrass individual schools publicly but I might just identify a few cases across the country, including in my county. There are large suburbs in the west of Cork city where there is one ASD class at primary level and one ASD class at secondary level. The area has one ASD class at primary and secondary level facilitating a population of about 25,000 people. This is totally inadequate and imbalanced. Out the road in outlying villages of a few hundred people, the primary school could have three or four ASD classes. This imbalance and the way we have allowed this model to develop need to be addressed.

We speak about working in collaboration with schools rather than adopting an adversarial approach but it is high time we took schools and boards of management to task. The greatest power the Minister of State has, as has been noted, is the section 37A power. I know it is not the most convenient way to do things. We would like to do things quicker. I understand the process can take up to two years, so section 37A is not the most appropriate of avenues by which to go about this. However, instigating this procedure, where appropriate and as quickly as possible, is a sure-fire way of signalling to these schools that they need to get their acts together.

I welcome the Minister of State's comment that a number of new schools are being established. One of them will be in Cork city. Just yesterday, we had confirmation that a second site in Glanmire had transferred from Cork City Council to the Department of Education in the hope that it will be developed as a special school. It is my hope that we can get on now with appointing a consultant, tendering and procuring for the site and getting the school built as it will facilitate dozens of children in the wider east Cork and Cork city area who require a special school place.

I will bring to the Minister of State's attention a matter that I became aware of only recently. We have approximately 140 early intervention classes at preschool level in the country. The difficulty is that many kids of two and three years of age who depend on the public service to get a diagnosis will more than likely not receive one until they are five, six or seven years of age. We are finding that in the early intervention classes, the majority of kids who are lucky enough to get a diagnosis at that age are from families who have the means to obtain a private diagnosis. The majority of early intervention classes are populated by children whose parents or families have the means to help them to get these places, which are in short supply. As I said, there are only approximately 140 early intervention classes nationwide. We need to work on that, particularly as regards the childcare settings we have. Perhaps we should develop a pod system or an ASD equivalent or perhaps we should expand existing early intervention provision. We need to work on the diagnosis of students if the system is to work.

I will touch on the summer provision programme. I spent 15 years as a teacher. Unfortunately, in that time the programme never had a good uptake for a variety of reasons, which have been well aired. I am hearing about this year's provision again. It is great that it has been assigned its largest ever budget of €40 million. However, I am hearing on the ground that about 80% of the students who could avail of summer provision will most likely not be able to do so. Again, I will not discuss individual schools but I have been told by parents' groups that in the case of a school in County Wicklow, there are 99 pupils seeking summer provision but only 12 of them have been offered a place. A school in Cavan has 183 students seeking summer provision but is only offering a programme to classes of children with severe and profound needs. This situation is mirrored across the country. While funding is welcome, we need to expand the numbers of people who can deliver the summer provision programme. Not everybody who delivers July or summer provision has to be a teacher. I know the scheme is being extended to trainee teachers who are registered with the Teaching Council but why cannot we consider other trainees such as those in the health or childcare sector? In my mind, anybody in the care sector could, in theory, be able to deliver a meaningful summer provision programme that far exceeds what is likely to be delivered this year.

I also flag the need for legislation on ASD provision. As I said, it is high time the Government, the Department or the NCSE took it upon themselves or were empowered to designate where ASD classes would be required. A proper demographic breakdown should be done to determine where ASD classes are most needed and they should then be targeted at those areas. I am not in favour of continuing to leave this at the discretion of schools.

The Minister of State indicated that, with the exception of Dublin, she has been told that sufficient places will be available. That is great and welcome. In Cork, we have about 12 children who are still awaiting a place. Many are opting to take a mainstream place, which their SENO has deemed as inappropriate. Due to a fear that they will not get a place anywhere else, these children are going back to mainstream education. Many of them have tried to exit mainstream education and get into a special school. While the problem might be more acute in Dublin, other areas are affected as well. We have made suggestions to the Department as to how to resolve that. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would follow up the matter.

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