Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The long-term effects of inadequate funding in primary schools have led to a crisis which, if not properly addressed, will continue to have negative knock-on effects on our children's education and well-being. This is especially the case for children with additional needs, who also face many barriers to inclusivity, such as short school days, reduced timetables and permanent exclusion from school. The prevalence of autism is increasing. The Department of Education and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, need to plan to ensure they meet the needs of students, going forward, which they are not currently doing. Sinn Féin is committed to making sure our education system is adequately funded and is inclusive and accessible for all children and all types of learners. Article 24 of the UNCRPD, which Ireland ratified in 2018, places obligations on the Government to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from education on the basis of disability and can access education on an equal basis with others. However, the present Government strategy seems to be only to react to crises. Currently, parents are applying to anything up to 20 schools for places for their child, and they may receive 20 refusals. That is soul-destroying for everybody involved. One parent who contacted me recently has a child in third class. The parent is already worrying - over three years out - about where she will find an appropriate school place for her child. She should not have to worry about that three months out. That planning should be in place. Another parent thought she was getting ahead of the posse by looking for a place 12 months out, only to find there was no place at all in her locality that would be able to facilitate her child.

Planning is needed rather than just reacting. Special educational needs, SEN, data should be gathered from schools via the primary online database, POD, to guarantee sufficient and appropriate school places for children with additional educational needs within their communities. There is still huge concern regarding the removal of complex needs as a criterion for set hours. The NCSE explained that this was done because information in respect of students was not forthcoming from the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, as they are not sufficiently staffed or working as they should be. Using the POD system would address this because teachers know their students and the students' needs. They would be able to input that information very easily to ensure that children's needs in the school are being met.

Special education teacher, SET, allocations were reprofiled during 2022 and came into effect in September 2022 for two years. According to the annual report from the NCSE, 362 schools applied for an exceptional review during that school year. Of those, 60 were put forward for review and only 39 were allocated an increase in SET hours. The red tape and bureaucracy around this process needs to be addressed, because it is off-putting. I think it is designed to be off-putting so that schools will not seek a review of their SET hours. That was certainly the case when I was teaching. We were almost afraid to look for a review in case we lost the small amount of resources we had. This needs to be addressed.

SET allocations and SEN provisions have been consistently under-supported for many years. Austerity measures introduced in 2011 reduced SEN resources by 15% and these cuts have never been fully reversed. In addition, the Government has failed to listen to the concerns of many teachers who have packed their bags and headed overseas. All our students, but particularly our SEN students, will be adversely affected by this. Funding education requires adequate investment.

The Minister referred to summer provision. While there has been a welcome increase in the number of schools participating in recent years, there are still too few schools participating to meet the needs of the students who most need summer provision. Those with the most complex needs are still being left out of the scheme. In many cases, home provision is not going to meet their needs. They need school-based provision.

I believe the capitation grant for summer provision has been cut. This makes no sense. It is good to increase the incentives for teachers and SNAs, but why is the capitation grant being cut? We need to see funding going in to ensure that the students with the most needs are getting the summer supports they need in order that they can slot back into school rather than being adversely affected over the summer.

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