Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I have the guidelines in my hand. They need to be withdrawn, because what the Minister of State has said and what we heard at the committee yesterday from the Department are directly contradicted by what is in the guidelines. The guidelines give rise to real concern because they state:

NCSE reviews are conducted on a whole school needs-based analysis, To be clear, this can include mainstream and special class allocations. As a result, a review of the SNA allocation of a special class in isolation is no longer operational. This means all SNA reviews will review the total SNA allocation to a school on a whole school basis.

That circular needs to be withdrawn. There is nothing there in black and white which indicates that there can be a midyear review. How did the Department end up issuing this circular? It needs to be withdrawn. I welcome the fact that clarification has been provided and that schools will be contacted. In my firm opinion, however, the circular needs to be withdrawn. Not only that, there is continuing reference to the 2014 criteria. Those criteria are completely out of touch with reality; hey need to be reviewed and updated. There is a commitment to do this, but it needs to happen before there is any reissuance of guidelines.

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