Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Needless to say, the Social Democrats knew this was a crisis and this is why we tabled this motion. Since then, however, in engaging with schools in Cork South-West and beyond, and through receiving messages on social media, I am realising how truly desperate the situation has got. Let us imagine being the principal of a primary school and getting a message late in the evening from a teacher to say they cannot come into work the next day. Let us also imagine that in this scenario it is possible for this teacher to get a sick certificate to cover their absence. That principal would first need to ring the teachers on the substitute panel, and in some places this consists of only two teachers for up to 30 schools, to confirm what will already be known, namely, that, in all likelihood, those teachers will not be available as they are scheduled to work elsewhere. The principal will then have to spend hours ringing around to see if it is possible to find anyone else. Again, this is likely to be a pointless task. One principal described to me the dread they feel every evening at the prospect of a teacher calling in sick because they know they will have to go through pointless hoops and merry-go-rounds to try to find a solution.

What about the situation where the teacher in question cannot get a sick certificate? What if it is necessary for a teacher to miss work because of a family emergency or a bereavement, for example, and not illness? This would mean that a principal would be out of luck and so would the students. In some schools, special education teachers and SNAs are forced to step in to cover the classes, which is a disgrace in itself because, crucially, it takes away precious special education teaching hours from other students. Let us imagine now being a principal in a small rural school, where there is no special education teacher on the staff or perhaps there is only one in a dedicated class. The principal in this case would not only fulfil that role but would also have classes of their own to teach. There may only be three teachers on the staff, including the principal, and one of them cannot come in. What on earth is the principal supposed to do in that situation?

Due to the changes in the substitution rules, there are classes in schools around Ireland being left without any teacher or even basic supervision, potentially for weeks at a time. The people I spoke to in the few schools who were not having issues getting substitute teachers said it was because they had established relationships with substitute teachers in the area who are not on the panel. They told me there is no point in trying to get those people on the panel as they are constantly in demand. Does the Minister of State recognise that teachers need leave for reasons other than illness and that, in those instances, students still need teachers? Does he also recognise that the panels are not sufficient? Another issue that could easily be addressed is that there is no central vetting system for SNAs. Therefore, an SNA must be vetted by each individual school. This makes it unnecessarily hard to get a substitute SNA. One school pointed out to me that there could be a vetting system for SNAs similar to the Teaching Council. That school was down two SNAs that day.

Children with disabilities and special educational needs are being failed by the State every day. First, they have a disgracefully long waiting list to contend with. This is just to get an assessment of needs.

That is before one joins the disgracefully long waiting lists for the essential therapies that one needs. Early intervention is a pipe dream when one is on these waiting lists. Accessible transport is another area where these families are being failed. The list goes on. I could, quite literally, go on all day.

The least that people should be able to expect is a place in a suitable class in a school. That is the bare minimum, and some people do not even get that. Schools in Cork South-West that have been in touch with the National Council for Special Education about this are not even getting a reply. Schools have inquired with a SENO and have not received a reply. One principal described this to me as like sending a message to Pluto. In the meantime, parents are asking schools if there will be a place for their child in September 2023. What are the schools supposed to say to these families?

We have all - I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, has too - been hearing from distressed parents about the extraordinary knock-on effects of this. To think that the staff allocation to meet the needs of those who manage to get an appropriate place in a class is being taken away because, yet again, the State is failing them is hard to fathom. This has to stop. The only solution we are hearing from the Government during a staff shortage is to make the job less desirable by removing the option of a career break. This is a sad and, quite frankly, worrying indictment of where we are at. It is not surprising because it is the kind of counterproductive approach we have come to expect.

Progressing Disability Services is such a failure that people increasingly do not want to work in the disability sector - a sector that could and should be brilliant and rewarding to work in. The same is starting to happen in teaching. We need to immediately establish an emergency teacher supply task force informed by stakeholders to identify tangible solutions to the shortages, as well as all of the other calls in the Social Democrats motion as outlined by Deputy Gannon.

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