Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope not. My two colleagues are here; I will restrain them as best I can.

I am interested in a particular issue that has arisen over recent weeks. It relates to special education training hours for national schools. The Department has issued a circular which has caused fear and anxiety among school principals, boards of management and parents. It relates to the criteria by which children will be assessed for these hours. The biggest problem with this is that the criteria are not based on the specific or complex needs of the children. This is causing a great deal of stress for parents. I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and her adviser yesterday about this, but we need to get clarity on what is actually happening.

In my constituency, over 50% of the schools surveyed will get less hours next year than they did last year, about 20% of them will remain as they were last year and maybe 30% of them will get an increase in hours. The budget has remained the same; it is just that the allocation of the hours has changed. Yet the schools that have lost hours will have the same problems next year as they have this year. There is something amiss in the context of what is going on.

It is important that we try to resolve this matter prior to September, because what we are talking about here is children who need every chance to fulfil their full potential. If we have schools that have lost up to five hours in special education teaching time, it is a major concern for the school and the parents. I ask, therefore, that this be looked at. I know it is a complex issue, that children's disability network teams, CDNTs, especially the one we have in Tuam, are way behind the curve in assessing children and that the waiting time to get assessments is impacting all this. Perhaps the Taoiseach will look at this and see what we can do to improve the system we have so the schools can retain the staff they have in order to provide the education that is required for our students.

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