Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Clarke for bringing forward this extremely important motion. The Minister of State has heard from previous speakers so I will cut straight to the chase. I welcome her opening remarks. She stated:

The allocation model for 2024-25 distributes the total available number of special education teaching posts in line with each school's profile of need.

She also stated:

The model makes an allocation based on a number of inputs, including enrolment numbers and school-level data from standardised tests, which reflect levels of overall need and complex need within a school.

She is probably aware of the Educate Together school in Fermoy. It was on the news a couple of weeks ago for reasons relating to capacity. The school is in a super-cramped education and training board, ETB, building. Apparently there are three floors and the second floor above could be used for additional space for the school. The principal and nearly every one of the family members of the pupils there have been on to me, crying out for additional space. They were promised resources to deal with the existing demand. I refer to the Minister of State's statement. We have a constituency dashboard that we can all access. We know exactly how many children have some form of autism or other need.

I am well aware of schools in Midleton, Rostellan and down further towards Whitegate that do absolutely amazing work. However, I was told yesterday by the father of a five-year-old that the principal of the child's school has been contacting the Department asking for additional resources and help and there has not even been a response. Somebody within the Department needs to get his or her finger out and act.

I had the honour of sitting on the autism committee that produced a policy document last year. We tried to go for what might be called the easy wins. One of them related to summer provision. We proposed that any trainee teachers, trainee SNAs or trainee gardaí who wanted to come on board should have the time they spent helping schools and pupils with summer provision counted as part of their training. That would provide an incentive for them to help with the programme.

I have a story of a very strong man who has two daughters with special needs. He has to drive one of them from Youghal to Carrigaline and the other from Youghal to Lota in Glanmire. He gets no assistance because of their age. This dad, who lost his wife a number of years ago, is his daughters' full-time carer. His full-time job includes driving them to school every day, collecting them and bringing them home.

We know the demand is there for provision. I acknowledge the increase in provision but I suggest the data is already available from the censuses. If we can access the data through the constituency dashboard, we can see the breakdown for each demographical area. We have the information and we know the demand. Reference was made to inputs, including enrolment numbers. I suspect the enrolment numbers will be a lot higher because the demand is a lot higher. We are all hearing about it. Sometimes, we come in here to beat the Minister of State with a stick, as it were, but this motion is about trying to ensure she has the information she needs. It is about flagging up that there are people not doing their jobs if principals are reaching out for help and not even getting a response.

See this speech in context