Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The question was about the impact of the delays in the Cavan-Monaghan area. I can speak to the amount of work being done by SNAs, which I have spoken about in response to Deputy Ó Murchú's matter, and the commitment of the Government to SNAs. Special education is built on the huge commitment by SNAs the length and breadth of the country and I thank them for the work they do. The NCSE makes these decisions. When the Deputy was going through the events there, he said he submitted an OT report in relation to Sonny. What date was that report? The Deputy might come back to me in his supplementary contribution. I want to get the facts. I have all the other dates here relating to this case, but the Deputy mentioned he submitted, on behalf of the family, an occupational therapist's report to the NCSE and I would appreciate that. If the Chair will allow I will give time to him to outline the case out of my time. I will endeavour to try to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.

When parents contact the NCSE about the needs of their children they are constantly asking what the best possible outcome is, whether it is mainstream, a special class or a special school. They are constantly worried about whether the right supports are in the school and whether their child will be able to survive in the school environment. In the cases of a lot of children with additional and complex needs, parents will constantly say that if there is an SNA there, they will be able to encourage the child, help them and ensure they are integrated into the school as best as possible. I understand that. I also understand very specifically the importance of the SNA role in schools and of course for the families as well. I will work with the Deputy. He mentioned this to me during Private Members' business the other week. I will work with him and the NCSE to see if we can get a resolution to this. I can understand the frustration about the dates he has given me. I would appreciate it if he could give me as many of the dates as possible. If he could put the dates on the record, I will endeavour as a matter of urgency to address this. I understand from my previous conversations with the Deputy and with the NCSE that officials were working with the school to resolve these issues. I will go back again. It might be this afternoon before I get a chance to do it, but I will certainly go back to them. I would appreciate it if the Deputy could give the date of the OT's report. Then if there is any further information he wants to put on I will take it on board.

I thank the Minister of State. I sent the OT report to the NCSE on 9 June last year. I do not know whether that report had previously been submitted to the NCSE but I know mountains of documentation were submitted. Just to give a sense of this, after all the assurances that this was going to be dealt with in July, the email I received on 21 August stated:

I appreciate your ongoing attention for the enclosed. Duly confirming as per recent correspondence to the school, all documentation and information relating to the SNA review for the school has been recorded by the NCSE and provided to the SNA review panel. No further application or information is required at this time.

I had to respond to the NCSE to say I did not know what that meant and to ask what I was supposed to tell the family. On 26 August, I received an email from the NCSE stating that it appreciated my follow-up correspondence and confirmed that the outcomes of all outstanding SNA reviews were due to issue to the school as soon as possible in the first week of September. Then we go on, waiting for the first week in September. No update arrived. On 9 September, indication was given to the school that the review was complete and that the school remained at one SNA. The school is back a number of weeks at that stage. Sonny could not go. This child had a full-time SNA in preschool and then it has essentially been withdrawn from him. Since then, we have been trying to raise these issues. In all of the correspondence I receive from the NCSE, officials finished with this absolutely insulting line: "Schools are expected to operate within their existing allocation." There are two children in the school who both need a full-time SNA and there is one SNA. One of the children is going to miss out and at the moment it is Sonny because he is the newest child in the school. When I first started engaging with the NSCE on this particular issue, I thought the case was clear-cut and it was so blatantly obvious that this would be resolved fairly quickly. The fact that it is not concerns me. How many Sonnys are there the length and breadth of the State whose parents do not have the wherewithal or even the energy to knock on the door of their local TDs and have them do some of the fighting for them? If TDs are getting information from the NCSE that is turning out not to be actually what is happening, what are parents being told? That is a serious question. This particular issue needs to be addressed but we need to make sure there are no Sonnys out there who are being denied their school place because of incompetence - and that is what this is.

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