Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)

It is not insulting to us as such, but to the families, the parents, the SNAs and the activists in the Gallery, outside and throughout the country. It is insulting to the 126 children who are without a school place now, one of whom, Frankie Edgeworth in my constituency, has been refused 83 different forms of education from preschool to primary school. He is six years of age and severely autistic with intellectual disabilities. He has a huge array of ancillary needs and is still without a school place. It is not the SENO's fault. It is the Department's fault and the Minister's fault. It is not the fault of schools such as St. Cronan's in Swords, whose students I welcomed for a tour here today. That school is doing everything it can. Schools like Broadmeadow Community National School put their hands up and say they have their own grounds, want to provide autism classes and are willing to ease the waiting lists in their localities, but what is the response I got from the Minister? It was that the Department would put Broadmeadow on the list. Apparently, the Government is looking for schools to put their hands up and saying it will give them facilities. Obviously, there is a staffing need and that will only be met if schools have time to do it, but the Minister is putting those schools that are putting their hands up on the long finger. It is disgraceful and goes against every public pronouncement that the Minister makes.

The amendment is offensive to SNAs. We have spoken about the work they do and the arbitrary cap. The Minister of State said that they were the backbone of special education, but SNAs have been shown a lack of respect over many years. I acknowledge the work Fórsa and other unions have done about respect for SNAs and SNAs know there could be a potential hazard in the job. Some of them require assault leave. There is one case I am dealing with that is embarrassing to the Minister of State and the Government because of what the SNA has to go through just to get that an entitlement to assault leave to ensure the SNA can recover and get back to work quickly, which is all that person wants to do. It is an administrative bungling that is embarrassing for any State organisation to stand over. It is something I have raised, but the parliamentary question responses have been nothing short of disgraceful.

Our motion, written by Deputy Eoghan Kenny and supported by the Labour Party, has the support of the Opposition. It should have the support of the Government but there are others in special education who are just forgotten by the Government as well. There is actually no policy for children with dyslexia. They are unable to get the supports they need within mainstream schooling because of the ratio and there is no policy to support them. It is a failure from top to bottom.

I wish the Minister of State well. I do not doubt his personal bona fides but there is a huge lot of work to do. The first thing he could do is withdraw this insulting amendment.

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