Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

I will focus my comments on the recruitment and allocation of SNAs. I recently submitted a parliamentary question on behalf of a local school in my hometown of Drogheda. Despite a clear recommendation from the local special educational needs organiser, SENO, to increase its SNA allocation, new posts were denied. That is because of some invisible and arbitrary national cap, an effective recruitment ban that is not a recruitment ban. This is Orwellian stuff, quite frankly. The answer I received from the Minister was certainly long and detailed. It went on at length about the wonderful things the Department was doing in this area but it failed to address the school's situation. It did not admit that there was a national cap on the recruitment of SNAs at all. What we will get from the Minister in a few minutes is a list of numbers detailing the investment in the sector and the additional SNAs that have been recruited in recent years. That is all well and good, but it is clear from schools in my constituency and around the country that it is not enough and that the system is broken.

My office has been deluged in recent weeks with contacts from students, staff and families at Marymount National School in Drogheda, in particular. The exasperated principal of that school wrote to me a number of weeks ago saying that students with additional needs in the school had once again been failed by a system that claimed to prioritise inclusion and support. She went on to explain that, despite a thorough review and a clear recommendation from the SENO that the school's SNA allocation be increased, the school was informed that the post would not be sanctioned. The intimation is that a national limit has been reached. The school principal described the situation as completely unacceptable, and I completely agree. The principal asked that I back her call for an immediate review of this quota or recruitment cap and demand that this school and others in the same position I am dealing with have their recommended allocations of SNAs sanctioned. That is what I am calling on the Minister to do.

The budget considerations are determining the allocation of SNAs, not the professionally assessed need. Otherwise the assessment of need of those needs is futile.

The money must chase the need, not the other way around. This is the equivalent of saying that the emergency department in our local hospital is full, so people will not be allowed to access it and can go home. This is a demand-led service and it needs to be treated as such.

The motion calls on the Minister and her Department to lift the arbitrary cap on SNAs and ensure that SNA positions are funded, sanctioned and approved when the NCSE has recommended that posts are required. As the school principal rightly said, children with additional needs do not disappear because the quota has been reached. A teacher at the same school asked me whether our children suddenly stopped having additional needs and were they not worth the same as their peers in other schools? That teacher made the very valid point that it is not only children with additional needs who are impacted when a school has an inadequate number of SNAs. It affects every child in the school because human resources are stretched to cover the gaps.

The Minister will be familiar with Marymount National School in Ballsgrove, Drogheda. It is in a DEIS area and has additional needs. The State recognises that it is an area of disadvantage and has additional needs. The teacher told me that, when a child with additional needs did not have his or her needs met, it could lead to frustration, anger, meltdowns and violence. How can an adult looking after 20 plus children keep them safe while helping a child in distress?

A separate but linked issue is that of how the NCSE and the SENO system is operating on the ground. A large school in my area with just one SNA has been trying to get a second post sanctioned for the past four to five years with no success. I do not want the Minister to tell me that this school, which is one of the largest schools in the country, does not have additional needs and can manage with one SNA. It is disgraceful. The system as it is currently constituted is failing our children and has to be fixed.

See this speech in context