Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I wish to share time with Deputy Ciarán Lynch.

Deputies:

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I commend Fine Gael on introducing this Private Members' motion on the failure of the Government to properly resource the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, so as to address the needs of all children. I condemn the Government's amendment in that it is totally misleading and untrue to state "all schools have access to psychological assessments for their students." The very fact that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had to pay for 1,000 private assessments for children last year is adequate proof that this bald statement is misleading and therefore the Minister cannot expect us to believe it.

Today's newspapers refer to the case of a youth of 16 whose parents are concerned about his strong suicidal tendencies. He is falling between two stools in that he cannot avail of child psychological services because he is too old and cannot avail of adult services because he is too young. This is bizarre and the needs of the child should be taken into consideration. Sufficient flexibility should exist to allow this to happen.

I have previously asked the Minister about the special school in the Phoenix Park and have tabled another question thereon. The school did not open in September because it did not have four teachers. Articles in the newspapers indicate that some of the students are receiving no schooling or the special educational supports they require so badly. We clearly do not have an adequate psychological service.

This is a question of human rights in the first instance. It is not only the case that the rights of the child are not being vindicated but they are also being infringed upon. The Government, including the Minister, has failed the children of this nation in that respect. It has failed to staff and resource NEPS, leaving the most vulnerable children, namely, those with special needs, without the intervention and supports necessary for them to develop and continue to benefit from their education. Consequently, the lives and career prospects of many children are destroyed. Further problems develop during the course of their childhood, often leading to disruptive behaviour, early school leaving, drug abuse and self-harm, sometimes resulting in suicide.

The importance of early intervention cannot be overstated. The Government has appointed just seven additional psychologists to NEPS this year despite a firm commitment from the Minister to appoint an additional 31. The psychological service is in decline in many schools. Where schools lose their disadvantaged status, they also lose access to the NEPS programme, as happened ten post-primary schools this year. The picture painted by teachers and those at the coalface is altogether different from that painted by the Minister. An ASTI survey in 2006 found that 89% of schools have students with special needs. These students have not been formally assessed but were considered by the teaching staff as having such needs. Some 74% of principals are reporting unacceptable delays in obtaining assessments and 42% stated it took an average of three months, or more, to secure an appointment with NEPS. Some 35% of principals reported a two-month delay.

The Minister's claim that schools can have access to private assessments raises two issues. First, the number is strictly limited to 2% and therefore a school of 400 pupils with ten or 15 pupils in need of assistance must exclude a considerable number rather than ensure that all children at risk have access to an assessment. In this case, it is the children who suffer. No amount of bluster from the Minister will change the fact that the Government has failed to vindicate the rights of children.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Brian Hayes and his Fine Gael colleagues for tabling this motion. The debate is fundamentally about providing each child in the State with the best opportunity to reach his or her full potential and it is also about the ongoing daily anguish and frustration faced by parents who want help for their children. It is a question of how we define the price of a child's education and development and of whether we provide resources early or pay the cost later. This price is not just measurable in financial terms but also in terms of the great personal cost to those who need help now, and their families.

In recent years, the field of educational psychology has been broadened by individuals such as Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University. Learning styles, for example, have been worked upon and it is unfortunate that great new educational concepts cannot be employed because of the difficulties in this area. We have arrived at the view that every child in the State should have full educational opportunities and we must ask ourselves why the most basic requirement of the Department of Education and Science, namely, to assess children with special needs, cannot be met as soon as possible and why an individual education plan cannot be prepared for them.

When NEPS was first established in 1999, the then Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Micheál Martin, promised the service would have 200 psychologists within five years. Clearly a commitment was broken, thus providing another example of a Government that actually lives in the moment.

Last evening, the Minister stated she attempted to keep her own election promise by making funds available for 33 extra child psychologists this year. The net increase is likely to be 16, at best, by the end of the year. When the Minister ran for election, she knew the recruitment difficulties that existed and when she was making her promise she should have known the circumstances that would now obtain. It is clear that approximately half of our primary schools have no service and Ireland has the lowest pupil-psychologist ratio in the European Union. Sadly, one must ask whether this explains why 23 school-going children died from suicide last year.

Regardless of Ireland's financial prospects, it has enjoyed unprecedented wealth in recent years and we have heard Ministers say it was awash with money. It is incomprehensible why people were going to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in recent years so that they could have assessments carried out. Eight years after the setting up of NEPS, the service has yet to reach a staffing target of 184 psychologists. The Minister stated she is on target to achieve a complement of 134 psychologists, but since 1999 the complexities of education have grown exponentially and student numbers have increased. New students are arriving from other states and the problem, as defined in 1999, has changed radically.

This debate is fundamentally about providing each child with the best opportunities to reach his or her full potential. Every day parents face the anguish associated with trying to have their child assessed. Children may require an assessment at two or three years but by the time they are five, when they should be assessed and in a school with an education plan, their parents are forced to run from school to school asking what is the best option in the absence of the information they require. There is a price being paid while we are having this debate. When the children in question are adults, we will be making funds available to make up the cost that should be met now.

Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I will share time with Deputy M. J. Nolan. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on psychological services. The special needs provision in our schools have seen significant investment in recent years and as a former teacher and special needs director, I am acutely aware of the importance of improving the services we provide.

It is with this in mind that I highlight the ground-breaking approach adopted by the HSE in the Kildare — west Wicklow area in providing support to children with special needs attending mainstream primary schools. The Kildare west Wicklow school support team, as it is known, provides support for children with a primary intellectual disability or a specific learning difficulty who are attending mainstream schools in the catchment area and who meet the criteria for this service. It is effectively an interdisciplinary approach for assessing the needs of children with intellectual disability and drawing up a programme for these children in conjunction with the children themselves, their parents, teachers and support staff.

The team at present includes a psychologist, senior occupational therapist and a speech and language therapist. The team has prioritised the senior end of the primary schools and schools with bigger numbers of children requiring the service. These children were known to the HSE but were not receiving services.

Parents, school staff, GPs and a range of other health professionals can refer a child to the Kildare west Wicklow support team for assessment. The model of service provided by the HSE to schools is agreed in advance and involves the team carrying out a block of visits into each school to work with the children in their school environment. The assessment process varies greatly for individual children which, in my view, reflects the quality of the assessment. Where standardised assessments have proved valuable for a few children, for others the most useful information has come from observation of the child and-or discussion with staff, parents and child. The aim of the support team is to enable children to access the curriculum and participate in school activities to their full potential.

Programmes addressing the specific needs identified in the assessment are put in place for use by staff in schools. Training is provided to teachers and support staff to assist with the intervention process, which helps in targeting the specific needs of each child. Typical support programmes which have been implemented include speech and language programmes; strategies regarding management of behaviour in the classroom, playground, physical education halls etc; strategies to help children who have high activity levels or poor concentration; and programmes to develop motor planning and co-ordination skills. Where necessary, follow-up visits to schools have been carried out to review progress and update programmes, as required.

The main advantage of this model of service is that the team gets a greater understanding of how the child functions in the "real" world, as opposed to assessing a child in a "clinic" setting. The approach also looks at the child as a whole, not just a set of difficulties, and can identify a child's strengths, which can be used to work on weaker areas. This approach also supports close communication between all of the professionals involved in the child's life and the child's family. It also increases the potential for working together and sharing of skills between all those involved.

School staff are very enthusiastic and positive about working with the support team and see this approach as a mechanism for improving their own skills and providing a better service to children with special needs. School staff are very committed to meeting the needs of children with special needs in their classes, are very open to using new approaches with these children and are very keen for guidance in their work. I have also received extremely positive feedback from parents who have interacted with the support teams. Everyone has gained from the sharing of skills and experience. I recognise the work of all those involved. In particular, the dedication of the disability manager for the HSE in the Kildare — west Wicklow area must be recognised. She has pre-empted the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and spearheaded this initiative, thereby giving us a model that hopefully will be rolled out throughout the country.

As we continue to incrementally improve our services and policies in the whole area of special needs, I want to make the case for increased resources to be provided for this school-based approach for our special needs children. I look forward to the appointment of another occupational and speech therapist to this team in the new year so that we will eventually have a team in each SENO area. I would like to highlight to the Department of Education and Science the importance of having the physical space for this programme included in all school extensions and new schools. In addition to increased resources, we also need to ensure we improve the cohesion between all the agencies involved in the area of special needs. This would lead to a more effective, needs-based, inclusive and co-ordinated service for our children.

M J Nolan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset, I should put on record the extraordinary changes that have been made in the education system and compliment the Minister and previous Ministers for their commitment to education at every level — primary, secondary and third level. What we have seen over the past ten years is very heartening, particularly in the area of special needs. Huge investment has been made in identifying the shortfall for special needs pupils and rectifying it. Those involved in education will say they are heartened by the commitment of this Minister to continuing that programme. In the context of the upcoming budget, I hope the Minister for Finance will again be generous in looking after the Department of Education and Science.

I know the delivery of services in the health and education sectors to people with disabilities and special educational needs is a priority of the Government and I wish to see it continue. Since 1998, this Government has continued to provide funding for pupils with special needs. The number of staff working solely in the area of special education has grown enormously in that period. There are 6,000 primary school teachers working directly with children with special needs, compared with 1,500 in 1998. That in itself shows the commitment.

One of the concerns I have, with which I hope the Minister can deal, relates to a case in my constituency where a child starting school in September was waiting to be assessed for a special needs assistant. No assessment could take place because the individual who was to assess that school was on maternity leave. I ask the Minister to look at that area to ensure that if somebody is on maternity or other form of leave and a service is not being provided because of it, replacements can be brought in either the private sector or another area and funding can be provided. In her statement last night, the Minister talked about private assessments but I would welcome it if she could examine that area so that where individuals are on leave for whatever reason, private assessments can take place. It is almost Christmas and I know that in this particular case, the individual will not be back until closer to Christmas and there is a three-month period lost.

Schools have access to psychological assessment for their pupils. Those schools that are not yet directly served by NEPS psychologists can have the assessment carried out by private psychologists and NEPS will pay for it. I ask the Minister to look at that particular area.

One of the major successes in our education policy has been supporting marginalised families through the home school community liaison scheme. The work these teachers do is incredible. I suppose it is under the radar and many of us do not see it but we get anecdotal evidence of marginalised families who, for one reason or another, have not been part of the mainstream education system and whose attendance record at schools has not been great over the years. Incredible improvements have been seen when teachers go out and make the effort to interact with those families. I know of a number of families in Carlow who have been brought into the system and the results have been astonishing. Individual pupils who did not go to secondary school are now doing so and doing their junior and leaving certificate. I know of some cases where such pupils have gone on to third level education. If one looked at them ten years ago and said that members of the community would go on to secondary school, let alone third level education, one would not be believed.

I commend the Minister on her work, wish her continued success and ask her to look at one or two small areas where we need to provide a service and insure it continues.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to share time with Deputies Conlon, Curran and Connick.

It is traditional to thank the Deputy who tabled the motion and I am pleased to applaud the efforts of my constituency colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes. The motion gave the Minister the opportunity to make a comprehensive statement on the issue and outline the major improvements in special education in recent years. Deputy Deenihan chided me recently for praising Ministers, which I do occasionally.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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What does Deputy O'Connor get in return?

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am never afraid to praise this Minister because I consider her to be particularly progressive. I am not afraid to knock on her door regarding Dublin South-West and issues in Firhouse, Templeogue, Greenhills, Brittas, Bohernabreena and Tallaght, areas with which Deputy Hayes is familiar.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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He can sing that.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I will revert to the Minister shortly.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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No doubt.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government amendment refers to the commitment to implementing the recommendation of the national strategy for action on suicide prevention with a view to reducing suicide rates. I acknowledge the contribution made by Deputy Dan Neville, who impresses us greatly with his work on suicide prevention. I have taken an interest in it in recent times. I was a member of the sub-committee of the Joint Committee on Health and Children that dealt with the issue last year.

The national strategy for action on suicide prevention, Reach Out, sets out its intent to "plan, develop and implement an effective service response appropriate to the need in each area, such as liaison psychiatric nurse services in all accident and emergency departments for responding to those who present following DSH or who are acutely suicidal". The office for suicide prevention is anxious that by the end of the year each accident and emergency unit has at least one specialist member of staff to follow up with those who present at hospitals having self-harmed. In this case I pursued the issue and found out that in Dublin specialist nurses are in place in St. James's Hospital, Connolly Hospital, St. Michael's Hospital, the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Beaumont Hospital and St. Colmcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown. In St. Vincent's Hospital the response to self-harm presentations is made through the psychiatric liaison team. I regret that Tallaght hospital has not made such an appointment and I am supported by many colleagues in calling for it. I have taken an interest in this matter in recent times, assisting those who feel strongly about it.

I pay tribute to a local organisation, Teenline Ireland, based in St. Dominic's Centre in Tallaght and founded by Ms Maureen Bolger following the sad death of her son a few years ago. The organisation does tremendous work and points out that young people should contact it if anxious, lonely, vulnerable, depressed or suicidal. The organisation has a drop-in centre in Tallaght — I am sorry for speaking only about Tallaght. The centre also has a board with memorials, correspondence and cards from families of young people throughout the country. Most of this debate will focus on education but we must pay attention, as Deputy Devins did, to the need for more resources for suicide prevention among young people. I hope the Minister will pay attention. I called for more resources for educational projects at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting last night.

Margaret Conlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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As an educator in my former life, I welcome the improvement and investment in education in recent years, particularly in special education. Those with special educational needs receive increased support, enabling them to be the best they can be in a positive learning environment. For too long they struggled, became disaffected with school and chose the easy option of dropping out of school. I commend the Minister for her clear commitment to those with special educational needs. This was enhanced by the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, under which each child is entitled to an educational assessment and an individual education plan. I welcome the consultation process that enables parents to have a partnership role as stakeholders in the education of their children.

The allocation of resource teaching hours has been very beneficial and the children in need of assistance can access the support immediately. Many with special educational needs do not need individual assessments to access additional support. In 1998 there were 300 special needs assistants in our schools, today there are 8,200. The special needs assistants provide students with valuable support necessary for them to cope with the complexities of life in school.

NEPS did not exist until 1999 and since its foundation resources for staffing have increased. I welcome the Minister's commitment to fill the vacancies. As a teacher, I compliment the NEPS psychologists who provide invaluable advice to teachers and, in particular, in making recommendations for students who seek reasonable accommodation in the leaving certificate examination so that they can achieve their potential. Some 2,800 sought reasonable accommodation in the State examinations last year.

Unfortunately, youth suicide is a reality. Our schools have a major role to play. Over the past few years, schools have developed critical incident policies although hopefully many will never need to act on them. It is important to be ready. Equally, a healthy mental attitude should be nurtured and fostered by schools. Our pupils need to leave school with high self-esteem and coping skills.

Students must learn complex skills and values. The transition from primary to secondary school is difficult but support is in place to ease the stress on the student. I am an advocate of the SPHE programme, which enables students to verbalise concerns and problems in a non-threatening environment. Students in primary schools learn from an early age that a problem shared is a problem halved. They quickly learn the benefit of not internalising troubles as they develop skills to discuss problems in age appropriate language. For too long we lived with the notion that children should be seen and not heard but we have moved on. We have many positive mental health programmes in schools. In transition year we ran the Mind Yourself programme, assisting in the development of a positive mental attitude.

For many school children, school is the one place in which they have a routine and feel safe. As a practitioner at the coalface, I have witnessed this at first hand. In many cases students look forward to the listening ear of a caring, considerate, compassionate teacher who makes time for the student. The increased support for teachers, such as guidance councillors, class tutors, year heads, home-school liaison officers and chaplains, assists in ensuring problems are identified quickly and concerns are referred to the HSE without delay. This ensures the necessary wheels are put in motion to assist the student and the family.

Our society has changed in the past 15 years and our schools must be equipped to help students to cope. I will work to build on the significant improvements made for all our children, in particular those with special educational needs. Our schools and society are becoming more inclusive in respect of these children and we are seeking, at all times, to recognise the individuality of all students, particularly in the context of the special people they are.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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While I would normally welcome the opportunity to debate issues in the House, I must admit that it gives me no great pleasure to debate the motion tabled by Deputy Brian Hayes and Fine Gael. I genuinely believe that the motion is devoid of any real substance and it fails to recognise the very significant advances the Government has made in the area of special education during the past seven or eight years.

The motion refers to NEPS. As the previous speaker stated, the latter was established during the lifetime of the previous Administration led by Fianna Fáil. It is easy to sit on the opposite side of the House and nit-pick and cherry-pick about things that may or may not have been delivered.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should tell that to parents.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should sit and listen. My point is that the Government introduced and delivered on NEPS. It is never the case that programmes are introduced which do not encounter hitches and glitches. We devised and introduced NEPS.

The motion refers specifically to NEPS and assessment. There is no point carrying out assessments if resources are not delivered simultaneously in respect of special needs assistants, SNAs, and school supports. Last week, the Minister for Education and Science replied to parliamentary questions from Deputy Quinn in respect of average class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios. I do not know whether the Deputy was trying to play dumb but he made no attempt to recognise that there is a difference between the two. While average class sizes may not have been reduced in the way people may have wished, the primary reason for this was that the pupil-teacher ratio has fallen. The latter came about because we appointed a significant number of additional resource teachers and SNAs. During the Question Time to which I refer, Opposition Members stated that the latter do not count or are not significant. Now they are suddenly most significant.

If those children who are in mainstream education and who have special needs are not attended to by SNAs and resource teachers, it has an impact on their education and that of their classmates. When we were in school, such resources were not available. Members can refer to individuals with whom they went to school who should have had but who did not have that level of support available to them. It is only during the past eight to ten years that Fianna Fáil-led Governments have delivered in that regard.

The motion tabled by Deputy Brian Hayes and Fine Gael is mean-spirited because it refers only to assessment and not to the delivery of resources. There are now 6,000 primary school teachers working daily with children who have special educational needs. In 1998 less than a quarter of that number were employed in the system. At post-primary level, almost 2,500 teachers work with these children. More importantly, in 1998 there were only 300 SNAs in employment. Now there are over 8,800. The motion is, as already stated, mean-spirited and fails to recognise the very significant improvements that have been made in the delivery of services. It primarily concentrates on——

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is referring to a different service.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy and I are referring to the same service. However, his head is buried in the sand.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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It is time the Deputy took his head out of the sand.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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If the Deputy is so smart——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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If Deputy Curran——

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The Leas-Cheann Comhairle should allow me to finish. How many SNAs were employed when Deputy Burke's party was last in government?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy should refer his remarks through the Chair and ignore any interventions. I will do the referring, if he does not object.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Burke was distracting me. I simply wish to make the point that on the last occasion on which the Deputy's party was in government there were very few SNAs in employment.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The simple point is accepted.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Deputy Curran, without interruption.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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On the last occasion on which the party of the Deputies opposite was in government there were very few SNAs in employment.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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There are many more problems now.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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There are now just under 9,000 in employment. There is no point in carrying out assessments without providing support services.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Correct.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Now the Deputy is getting it.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The motion ignores the very significant progress that has been made and the services the Government has delivered. It does not recognise what Fine Gael failed to do during its time in government. We have delivered in terms of NEPS and the employment of SNAs. This is a mean-spirited motion.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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After all that, the Deputy will still not get a job out of it.

Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and to highlight the record-breaking investment the Government and previous Fianna Fáil-led Administrations have made, and will continue to make, in the area of education.

All children must have an educational experience that is tailored to their individual needs and abilities. From a policy point of view, this requires the Government and all its partners within the education system to develop a mixture of different educational responses appropriate to the needs of children in varying circumstances.

In the past nine years, the ability of the education system to meet the requirements of children with special needs has greatly improved. Since the Government took the decision in 1998 to provide an automatic response to children with special needs, investment in this area has multiplied. In the current year alone, investment in special education will be over €820 million. This represents an increase of over 30% on the amount allocated in the 2006 Estimates.

There are now over 6,000 primary school teachers working directly with children with special needs, compared with just 1,500 in 1998. The number of special needs assistants has increased from 300 to over 8,800 since that date. In addition, there has also been a substantial increase — from 200 in 1998 to 2,450 at present — in the number of whole-time equivalent teachers who support second level students with special needs.

The establishment of the National Council for Special Education and the decision to place special educational needs organisers in local areas means that for the first time parents and teachers have local support to help them obtain the appropriate responses for their children. The roll-out of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act will see further improvements in services for children with special needs. The Act provides for educational assessment for children with special needs and gives them an entitlement to an individual educational plan. It also gives parents recourse to an independent appeals body that will have the power to compel organisations such as the HSE to take specific actions relating to children's requirements.

One of the most important advances in recent years in providing an individually tailored educational response to children with special needs has been the provision of resource teachers to primary schools. For the past two years, each school has been allocated resource teaching hours based on its enrolment numbers. This is a significant improvement on the previous system of requiring children to undergo a psychological assessment before being allocated resource teaching hours. The latter often caused long delays in providing children with the support they needed. With resource teachers placed in schools, children can now access the support they need immediately.

We have also seen a substantial investment in recent years in psychological assessments of schoolchildren. In the past school year alone, the Department of Education and Science paid for over 10,000 individual psychological assessments to be carried out on schoolchildren. A total of 5,800 were carried out in that period by the Department of Education and Science's NEPS psychologists. In addition, the Department paid for a further 4,400 assessments to be carried out privately, at a cost of €1.5 million, through the scheme for commissioning private assessments. I welcome the fact that although the number of NEPS psychologists has trebled since 1999, the Department is still committed to increasing that number from its current level of 134 to 200 by 2009.

Another important development has been the increase in the number of speech and language therapy students. Additional courses in speech and language therapy have been established in three universities, University College Cork, NUI Galway and the University of Limerick, with an initial uptake of 25 places on each course. This represents an increase in training capacity from 25 to 105 speech and language therapy students.

The availability of suitably qualified speech and language therapists is of great concern to many parents. I wish to refer to an example from my constituency. St. Patrick's special school in Enniscorthy is the only special education school for the entire county of Wexford. St. Patrick's special school requires two full-time speech and language therapists. However, the school receives an allocation of only seven sessions of speech and language therapy per week. In a school of 133 students, this gives each student minimal exposure to speech and language therapy on a weekly basis. While I recognise that nationally the amount of speech and language therapists employed in the public health service has increased substantially in the past ten years from 281 whole-time equivalents in 1997 to 648 in 2006, this area has the potential to benefit further when the new university speech and language graduates come into the health system. I particularly hope that some of these new graduates will be allocated to St. Patrick's special school in Enniscorthy.

I welcome the many developments which have taken place over the past number of years on the provision of educational services to children with special needs and I commend the Ministers for Education and Science and Health and Children for their commitments to this sector. I hope both Ministers continue to prioritise special needs education.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to share time with Deputies Breen, McEntee, Deenihan, Reilly, Connaughton, Joe Carey and Clune.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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In 1999, when NEPS was established, undertakings were given by the then Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, that within five years he would establish a programme of psychological assessment throughout the country. NEPS aims were to develop a local and accessible psychological service at primary and second level following best practice in all cases. If ever a situation highlighted a Government's failure this one does as eight years later the original estimate of 200 psychology professionals in the service has not been achieved by a long shot.

We have 131 psychologists for the entire country. However, as the Minister of State and the Minister, who has just left the Chamber, know, in counties such as Longford only 18% of students are covered by the service. The figure for north Tipperary is 34%, for south Tipperary it is 26% and for Kilkenny it is 21%. These statistics counter the argument made by the Government during this debate with regard to its success.

Despite the fact that in January this year, prior to the election, the Minister stated 31 additional people would be appointed, only seven appointments have been made with one more promised for December. How can we tell students in need of psychological assessment and their parents that this is a comprehensive service? The responsibility is not only thrown at schools and parents but also at charities. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul pays for 20 assessments on a weekly basis.

How can the Minister be proud of the service she delivers when she has failed miserably? The reason she asked the Minister of State, Deputy Devins, to co-ordinate between the Departments of Health and Children and Education and Science is that she has seen her failure and is unable to attend to it. She does not have the willingness and determination at Cabinet level to seek resources because she would be refused and told to make do with what she has and organise it properly. She has failed to do so.

Seeing the 842 people in County Galway who await speech and therapy services makes one realise how inadequate is the service. The greater Dublin area has a reasonably good service. The rest of the country falls far behind. How can any Minister justify this in terms of access to a national scheme?

We need an immediate increase in the number of NEPS psychologists. However, they are not being trained and the Minister knows this. A total of eight psychologists are trained here per year and they are asked to complete two additional years of post-graduate work. The bar for appointments is set so high that we cannot get people to enter the service and adequately deliver it.

The idea of having two separate Departments involved in the delivery of this service means people fall between two stools and lose out. The Minister repeatedly referred to the importance of early intervention in the provision of these services. However, she has failed to deliver any service at any stage.

Recently, two people with two children returned from the United States to live in my constituency. They had state-of-the-art services in the United States but came to a rural school in County Galway where one of the children was offered 15 minutes speech and language therapy per week. When they requested more and offered to pay for it they were denied the opportunity to obtain it in that school. They almost returned to the United States until a benefactor helped them access the service. If only 43% of schools are covered the Minister must accept that she has failed.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Constitution pledges that all children should be cherished equally. It is obvious that our children are not treated equally. Children are left behind in a system which militates against those most vulnerable. Children in many of our schools suffer from behavioural difficulties such as depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, ADD, ADHD and multiple disorders. Early intervention in the educational system is vital to assist those children most at risk.

However, many children do not receive assistance because of the lack of psychologists. Many schools restrict the number of private tests they authorise and as a result various support and charitable organisations fill the gap. One of the support groups which provides much-needed assistance is the mid-west region's ADD support group. It is the norm for the organisation to lend money to parents who cannot obtain help for their children.

A child can wait for up to two years for an early assessment. In some cases, children have left the education system without having received help. This results in greater difficulties for these children later in life. The mid-west ADD support group told me of a case involving a ten year old boy whose family could not afford to pay for private consultation. He would have had to wait until he was in second year or third year in secondary school for help if the support group had not intervened. The fact that a charitable organisation was forced to cover a shortfall in Department funding is an appalling indictment of the lack of care for our children and their parents.

In April 2006, only 60 of the 120 primary schools, or 50%, in County Clare had access to NEPS. The failure to provide 100% coverage for such essential services is scandalous. Three psychologists operate from a base in Ennis and occasionally they are assisted by a psychologist from Galway. They provide a first-class service to those children fortunate enough to access the system. However, expecting 20 full-time psychologists to cover 138 primary schools and 55 post-primary schools is not good enough and extra resources are required.

Since 1997, spending on mental health services has dropped from 11% to 7% of overall expenditure. The development of our psychiatric services has been ignored for far too long. During the past school year, 23 suicides by children were reported to NEPS. We must increase our investment in helping children most at risk.

The same is true with regard to speech therapy, which is provided by the HSE. However, it should be provided directly through the education system. It is regrettable that those at the coalface dealing with this problem, namely, teachers, are not involved in this service. Recently, the experience of the mother of an eight year old boy was related to me. She is anxious to obtain help for her son who has learning difficulties. She is just one of the many parents and children throughout the country who are experiencing difficulties. Following an assessment of the child at his local school, he was advised to apply for speech and language therapy and his name was added, at No. 200, to the waiting list for initial assessment. It would be more than a year before he would be called, which is a disgrace. In today's complex world, educational qualifications are critical and it is difficult for children to catch up later in life if they are left behind in their early days.

The shortfall in the numbers of suitably trained psychologists for the educational service must be addressed. Putting NEPS on a statutory basis and recognising it as an equal in the education system would be a start. The Taoiseach has described the promised referendum on the rights of children as a watershed for Irish children. The watershed should commence with a commitment to investing more resources in NEPS.

Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I did not come to the House to attack anybody but the best method of defence is attack. Deputy Curran got my blood boiling when he attacked us for raising this issue. We would not press the matter if it were not important.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Half the children in Ireland do not have this service. It is typical of Fianna Fáil Deputies to attack when they know they are wrong. I do not understand how they can vote against this motion.

The Government's educational programme has been backwards for the past ten years. We build houses but we never seek to find out how many children will live in them. It is a simple equation because 100 houses will contain a certain number of children. The one statistic we have at the end of every year is the number of births in the preceding 12 months. The Government must plan for the future.

The people no longer accept the status quo of ten years ago when if things were not 100% perfect for one child in a household, he or she was left behind to close the gate after the cows. They want full support for every one of their children. It is unacceptable that Fianna Fáil is attacking us for tabling this motion because that party did not address the issue. The Government knows the number of children in the country and that 190,000 are affected by these problems. Promising everything before the general election and breaking the bad news afterwards is not the way to do business.

Every household has a child who needs a bit of extra help. The money should be spent at the beginning of each year when the Minister for Finance comes to the House with his budget. The required €100 million should be provided up front for these children rather than for the children who will be all right.

For the past ten years, repeated commitments were made to reduce class sizes to 22 students but this has not been progressed. If children are given proper assessment at the age of three or four, their health bills will be reduced 20 years in the future, the problems on the streets will be less severe and fewer of them will leave school at an early age. Great promises were made last March and April but all we are getting now is bad news. The people will no longer accept simple stories. We have the money and we want the best for our children.

Several weeks ago in County Meath, Deputy Johnny Brady and the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, laughed at me for criticising a project being imposed on the people of the county. They said it would have to proceed but they changed their tune in front of 3,500 people in Trim three weeks later, when they said it is not Fianna Fáil policy to erect overground cables.

I intended to speak about young people until Deputy Curran started ranting about our policies. The people of Ireland will no longer accept false promises. They realise the country has had an abundance of money over the past ten years but it was lost in our education system. Schools are overcrowded. Children who need special attention should be assessed at three or four years of age so that when they reach the age of ten or 12 they can take their place in normal life. They can join the workforce later so we do not have to be dependent on people from other countries.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Unlike Deputy Curran, I sincerely thank Deputy Brian Hayes for introducing this motion. Some 40% of primary schools in County Kerry lack this service. I conducted a survey last year and discovered from the INTO that only 52% of schools in the county had the service. Such a service is simply unacceptable.

Schools are expected to generate two or more assessments per 100 pupils, depending on location. Even where the service is provided, it is insufficient. Assessments by educational psychologists are essential if primary schools are to be able to identify and meet children's special learning needs. It is vital that special needs are identified early and learning programmes developed if the children are to reach their full potential. Regular support from educational psychologists is crucial and it is necessary that NEPS psychologists are assigned to particular schools.

As anybody involved in education would attest, further development work is needed because it is not merely a matter of writing a report and leaving it at that. The commissioning scheme is not working at present because it only provides for reports. A teacher informed me last week that many psychologists are less than enthusiastic about the scheme because the fee for assessments has not increased since its introduction. Private psychologists have long waiting lists and they are not going to put somebody to the front if they receive less money for seeing that person.

A fully staffed psychological service for schools is critical to ensure all children, regardless of family means, are assessed. It is fundamentally wrong that some children are assessed because their parents can afford private care whereas those without the necessary means must do without or depend on charity. Several Deputies noted that one of St. Vincent de Paul's most important services is supporting parents is having their children assessed, provided a psychologist is available.

In the area of emotional health, a clinical psychiatrist rather than an educational psychologist is required to diagnose attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, the clinical psychiatry service is completely inadequate and has failed the youngsters of Ireland.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I concur with the comments made by my colleagues. Speech and language waiting times can vary from several months to two years. A small child in my area of Dublin North has been waiting nine months for this service. The child's parents must wait and worry before they can find out whether the child has dyslexia, autism or Asperger's syndrome. Schools are restricted in terms of the number of assessments they can receive each year depending on whether they are disadvantaged. However, it does not make any difference if they are disadvantaged. An estimated 10,800 children annually have special educational needs. The limited number of psychologists available are unable to cope with this number. The motion is, therefore, timely.

I echo Deputy McEntee's comments on earlier statements by the Government's spokesperson. After one has clothed, fed and given a person shelter, the most important needs to be met in a civilised society are health and education. Psychological assessment covers both these areas. What happens to children with dyslexia who are not diagnosed before the age of seven years? Their prospects for recovering from their disability diminish with each month. It is harrowing for parents to find themselves wondering whether their child has autism when all the evidence points to the fact that early intervention leads to much improved outcomes. Early intervention is much more advantageous to society and the State because the children in question will not require institutional long-term care and will be able to lead fuller lives in society.

With speech and language therapy currently unavailable, people must avail of the private option. I may have been misquoted earlier when I indicated the Society of St. Paul had spent €4 million. The sum was spent on school transport. The society has received 350 telephone calls from every corner of the country, including Galway, Limerick, Cork, Dublin and the midlands, from people who cannot afford to pay for a psychological assessment for their children, many of whom have been getting into difficulty. The child in Dublin North to whom I referred is experiencing tremendous difficulties with his peers; for example, he is being abused on account of what is described as his "baby talk".

It is also alarming that Ireland has the seventh highest rate of suicide among schoolchildren in the European Union. It is frightening that suicide accounts for 22% of all deaths among those aged between ten and 17 years. Psychological assessment clearly has a major role to play in detecting those in difficulty. For this reason, I ask the Minister to value our greatest asset, namely, our children and address the deficit in the psychological service.

Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Speaking as a Deputy who has raised this aspect of education on a number of occasions over the years, I believe few issues in education are as important as dealing with special educational needs. I commend my colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, on bringing this issue to the fore. From my experience of dealing with many constituents who have children with special educational needs, I have concluded that there is only one cardinal sin in education. There is something seriously wrong with an educational system which consigns a boy or girl to achieving less than his or her full potential or failing to fulfil his or her God given talents. This cardinal sin is committed consistently all over the country.

Let us imagine a boy or girl who cannot keep up in class or make or keep friends and slips through the net as a result. He or she will begin to hate going to school, will build up the prejudices one associates with children in this position and will eventually come to hate society. I do not need to tell the House what is written on the forehead of such children. I can assure Deputies it is not "University College Galway" but is much more likely to be "Mountjoy Prison Dublin". This is an awful problem.

While I do not want to bring politics into the issue, when I see Ministers award themselves salary increases of €38,000 per annum at a time when it is impossible either to secure the services of professionals to assess children and determine or identify their special educational needs or pay for educational psychologists and other professionals to look after these children, I must conclude that this society could hardly be more unfair.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The only reason these circumstances are allowed to persist is that the Government believes the numbers of those at the bottom of the pile who are unable to pay for professional help will never be sufficient to change the Government. It is nothing short of disgraceful that this is allowed to happen.

We have all the evidence in the world to show that when the system works it works exceedingly well. The problem is that we also know that many children, for many reasons, cannot secure the service they fundamentally require. I am ashamed of some of the Government Deputies. While I cannot deny the Government has been responsible for some good measures in education, in so far as this issue is concerned it has made a major mistake in failing to help those who cannot help themselves. I hope it takes notice of the motion tabled by my party's education spokesperson, Deputy Brian Hayes. Irrespective of which party does the job it will be a good day when the necessary action is taken because it will make many people much happier in the years to come.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion and compliment Deputy Brian Hayes on tabling it on behalf of the Fine Gael Party. The Government has broken nearly every promise it made regarding the delivery of the National Educational Psychological Service programme. Eight years after its initiation, 50% of all primary schools have no psychological service available to them and the numbers of secondary schools with designated psychologists is falling. It is vital that children presenting with a special needs requirement are assessed without delay. This is not the case.

I regularly speak to parents and school principals and they are disillusioned with the system because it takes so long to secure a psychological assessment for a child. Delays in carrying out assessments affect all the pupils in a given class. The students with special needs fall further behind and other members of the class are affected by disruption.

Why does it take up to two years for a child to secure an assessment? I am aware of a number of cases in County Clare where children waited two years for an assessment and their parents subsequently found that the results were overruled by special education officers. Three children were refused access to school transport as a result of this practice. Two of them were attending St. Anne's special school in Ennis, while the third attends St. Gabriel's school in Limerick. Following extensive pressure and a large number of representations, the decision was revoked. In what way are special education officers qualified to overrule judgments made by qualified psychologists?

Given that full implementation of the NEPS is critical for all pupils and schools, it is beyond belief that the Government intends to cut by 6% funding for the NEPS programme next year. How can it stand over this decision? Will it keep any of the promises made before the general election? I strongly support the motion.

Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am amazed by the contributions made by Government Deputies. I do not know what planet they live on but the National Educational Psychological Service is in tatters and is not being delivered on the ground. In recent weeks, I have spoken to a number of school principals who are working at the coalface and dealing with the frustration caused by waiting lists and the inability to secure an assessment. Even when an assessment takes place, the child's name will be placed on another waiting list for services such as speech and language therapy or occupational therapy. It is a tragedy.

I spoke to the principal of school where six students have been waiting for an assessment since last May. One of the pupils will be assessed before Christmas but the principal does not know when the other five assessments will be carried out. Children must wait for years, which is a long time in their short lives. This neglect causes irreparable damage and it is a sad reflection on us that we do not provide the services children need or an opportunity to allow them develop to their full potential. There is an onus on the education system to educate children and support them in their needs, but this is not happening. Many issues in this regard have been raised here. The NEPS service is not available in 50% or our schools. Many psychologists are not willing to work in the system because remuneration is not adequate, and others are leaving the system. The system is in tatters and our children are being neglected. Our schools now need to take a multidisciplinary approach and if an assessment is required, they must be able to provide the speech therapist, the occupational therapist and all the rest that go with the necessary psychological assessment. We need to discuss this motion again.

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to address some of the issues that have arisen in the course of this debate. On the demand for assessments, since 2005, most primary school children with special needs do not need assessments carried out in order to assess extra teaching supports required. The need for assessments has, therefore, been reduced. At the same time, we have made sure that all schools can access assessments for their pupils, either directly through the national educational psychological service, the Dublin VECs or by commissioning them from private psychologists whose fees will be paid by NEPS. Over 10,000 assessments were funded by the Department of Education and Science in the 2006-07 school year, 5,800 through NEPS and 4,400 through the private scheme.

As the Minister said last night, the number of schools served directly by NEPS is, therefore, only half the picture. Nonetheless, the Government is committed to expanding the number of NEPS psychologists, from the current 134 to 200 by 2009 so that more schools can receive a direct service. As part of this expansion, funding was made available earlier this year for 31 extra psychologists to be appointed to NEPS in 2007. While recruitment for these positions has taken longer than expected, it is under way. On top of the 31 extra posts sanctioned for this year, a further 11 NEPS psychologists will be recruited next year.

The Fine Gael motion also refers to access to speech and language therapy. As Deputies will be aware, the provision of such therapies is a matter for the health sector, rather than the Department of Education and Science. Access to the appropriate therapies can of course impact on children's capacity to succeed at school. The Taoiseach appointed Deputy Jimmy Devins as Minister of State with responsibility in both the education and health Departments to ensure better cross-departmental co-operation in such areas. I understand from him that the number of speech and language therapists employed in the public health service has more than doubled in recent years and there are plans for further improvements.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Is there an embargo on recruitment?

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The number of speech and language training places has increased significantly in recent years. The first cohort from the new MA programme in the University of Limerick graduated in 2005, while the first students on the new BA degree programmes in UCC and NUIG graduated this year.

I wish to address the tragedy of youth suicide, an issue raised by several Deputies. While a clinical diagnosis of mental health problems is a matter for the appropriate health professional, schools have a vital role to play in suicide prevention. Since 2003, social, personal and health education has been taught to all pupils up to junior certificate level. The modules at junior cycle deal specifically with issues such as bullying, dealing with peer pressure and coping with stress. In third year, an awareness of the range of agencies that can help students in difficulty is promoted, as well as the skills of knowing when and how to seek help.

School staff such as class tutors, home school liaison teachers and guidance counsellors also have a key role to play in supporting individual students who may experience personal problems. Referral can be made to appropriate health agencies where necessary and NEPS provides support and guidance to school staff who deal with pupils on a daily basis. As the Minister outlined last night, NEPS has developed an advice and information pack for schools on responding to critical incidents. When requested, NEPS will also make itself available for consultation and advice with regard to individual students causing concern.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I wish to share time with Deputies Kieran O'Donnell and Brian Hayes.

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This debate is astonishing in that when we examine the Government amendment and hear what many Government Deputies say, there is no recognition or admission of a problem. This is a major issue around the country. The frustration and anger of parents and principals trying to access services for children and students has reached an extraordinary level. People have totally lost faith in the State's competency to provide a service it is obliged to provide.

We are talking about the most vulnerable people in the country, children of two, three, four or five years of age with special needs who need either a HSE or NEPS service. We have 185,000 school age children with disabilities or special educational needs. We have 134 psychologists in NEPS to deal with these, as well as a scheme whereby private psychologists can be brought in to make assessments. Less than 50% of schools have access to a proper NEPS scheme. For those who do not, it is misleading for the Government to suggest in this debate that they get the same service through the scheme for commissioning private assessments. The private assessment is merely an assessment while the NEPS assessment is supposed to put a structured educational programme in place for children who need it.

As my colleagues have said, this is about early intervention and assessment so that families can work with their children and teachers to maximise their children's potential. A missed year here or there because of a waiting list can have a dramatic impact on a child's ability to catch up later. This is what causes the frustration suffered by parents.

I do not want to let this debate pass without referring to speech and language therapy, as well as the need for improved psychological assessment services. In May this year, Deputy David Stanton submitted a parliamentary question to establish how long children in schools in the Cork area must wait for psychological assessments. The response he received informed him the wait was two years. We also received information in May that 658 children were waiting for speech and language therapy assessment in Cork, while some 4,312 were waiting for speech and language therapy services.

Government spokespersons have been bragging about what the Government has achieved in terms of special needs assistants, as if we do not have a problem in terms of psychological assessments. I see the Minister making a dismissive comment to her colleague, as if to say: "What is he talking about? This has nothing to do with psychological assessments in schools." This motion is about children and the provision of services for them.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I never said any such thing.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Whether I am talking about educational needs for children in school or the language assessment needs of a two or three year old child, it is irrelevant. The State has a responsibility to provide both.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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If the Deputy wants to know what I am saying, he should learn how to lip read.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I can only go on the impression given by the Minister. She only arrived in for the last ten minutes of this debate.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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That is because the Opposition is allowed debate for 40 minutes.

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We cannot descend into this type of argument.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I wish to use my remaining time to refer to an e-mail one of our party representatives received from a young speech and language therapy graduate. She has been trying to get a job in speech and language therapy services in Ireland for the past three or four months and has not succeeded because there is an embargo on the HSE taking on speech and language therapists. That is the Government's response to the issue of priority.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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I will stick with the facts which speak for themselves. Only 50% of schools have a service in place. In my constituency which includes the city of Limerick two thirds of primary schools do not have a service. The figure for post-primary schools is 56%. The number of students without a service is almost three quarters in primary and 61% in post-primary schools. That is an indictment of the system. The available resources do not match the need. For every 50 students there is one assessment, which gives a figure of 2%. Under the scheme for private assessment, the same criteria apply, yet one in five children have special educational needs. The Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, said children did not need it, but some 20% of children have special educational needs. That is a fact.

There is a major anomaly. If the schools which have a service in place exceed their quota, they cannot access the Department's scheme; instead students have to pay for an assessment privately. Shame on the Minister. These are the students who need it most and the Minister should provide the necessary funding. Only 134 out of 200 posts which the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Martin, said would be in place by 2004 will be in place. The Minister talks about having the entire 200 in place ten years after the announcement was made. That is unacceptable.

In the mid-west only eight of the 16 psychologists are in place, that is, a figure of 50%. The Minister said 31 would be in place by the end of the year, yet another broken promise. At most 16 will be in place.

In the budget the Government will provide for a reduction of 6%. I hope that when the Minister goes back to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, she will fight her case for the students she represents. She should not accept a reduction of 6%; rather she should seek an increase. She needs to deal with this issue but is accepting a cutback from the Minister for Finance. She needs to fight the case of the students who need the service most and honour that commitment.

Many children who are assessed by the NEPS and private assessors need a psychiatric assessment under the HSE. I know of a child in Limerick who will be seen in the next day or two but who has been waiting two years. That is unacceptable. The Minister needs to provide the necessary resources.

The Government's amendment to the motion does not stand up to scrutiny. It refers to all schools as having access to psychological assessments. They do not — only 50% have access to such assessments. There is a quota system in place under which only 2% of students will qualify. If the schools with a service in place exceed their quota, they cannot access the private assessment scheme which the Minister put in place for students. Instead parents who can ill afford it will have to pay privately or organisations such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will have to provide assistance.

The Government has great capacity to speak about voluntarism and funding. This matter should have been dealt with during the past eight or nine years when the Celtic tiger economy was booming. We should not be debating this issue tonight. The Government is pushing out the timeframe by five years to 2009.

Speech and language therapy services are a disgrace. In Limerick people have to wait six months to one year to avail of such a service. If they cannot be seen, they have to have an assessment made privately. If they are seen, the resources are not in place to deal with the issues identified. The Minister needs to go back to the Minister for Finance tomorrow to demand that the resources be put in place.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank all my colleagues who have contributed to the debate which has proved very useful. I asserted in the House last night that there would be a 6% reduction in the budget for the NEPS next year and expected the Minister or the Minister of State to tell me I was wrong. We have established, both last night and tonight, as Deputy O'Donnell rightly pointed out, that next year there will be a reduction in the budget of the NEPS. That is a fact. It is the first cutback the Minister can tell the House she is introducing. A service in which she wants to have 200 psychologists in place within two years will have less money next year in its overall budget.

The Minister is a very smart woman but her biggest problem is that she does not listen to anyone. Another problem is that she is never wrong about anything. I would have thought she would have had the good grace to come into the House and apologise for the commitments she gave the House before the last general election. On 13 February she told Deputy O'Sullivan that, "With the extra 31 coming on board this year, we will be able to extend the coverage." On 22 March she informed Deputy Enright: "I have recently been pleased to announce an increase of 31 posts in 2007 in NEPS psychological staffing." On 5 April she informed my friend, Deputy Stagg, following a very insightful question, that:

I announced recently in this connection my intention to expand the number of NEPS psychologists by a further 31 in 2007. This will represent a significant increase in the number of psychologists in NEPS and bring the total number of psychologists in the system to 174.

That was then, this is now and there is no apology. This is the same woman who will receive an extra €38,000 a year for delivering on her commitments, on a key aspect of educational policy.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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That was the Taoiseach.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I apologise, the figure is €26,000. The Minister has not delivered on her promises. Before the last general election, when it came to her attention that 29 schools had been chucked out of the NEPS scheme, she reinstated them, rightly so. Many were in her constituency. I want her to give me advice for the schools in my constituency. I thought Deputy O'Connor would mention it when he saw a reference to Dublin 12 but, unfortunately, it was left out of his speech.

I refer to St. Paul's junior and senior national school in Greenhills which had a service available but then lost it. It was promised a service in September this year and recently received a note from the NEPS — effectively, the Department, not a separate statutory body — stating, "As you know, there have been staff shortages in area 4. Again this year, we unfortunately have to inform you that we do not have the sufficient staff in place", yet the Minister said last night that as there had been substantial recruitment in the three eastern coast areas serving Dublin and surrounding counties, the service would be transferring to other areas. Who is right: the Minister or the nameless official? That is the reality.

There is a lack of responsibility on the part of the Minister and the Department. She is presiding over a bureaucratic nightmare — the NEPS, the National Council for Special Education, SENOs and the HSE. The system is "shambolic".

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Some 17,000 work with people with special needs.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The reason we want to give the Minister responsibility for speech and language services is that there is an embargo on the recruitment of additional speech and language therapists because they come from the Department of Health and Children. Not only is the Minister failing to deliver on her specific commitments to the House, she has also failed to put in place a proper system to adequately address the need for follow-up assessments. She spoke last night about the SCPA scheme, privately commissioned assessments, but there is no follow-up, as any school principal in the land would tell her. At least in the case of the NEPS, once there is an assessment, there is a follow-up and a plan is devised. The suggestion that the other 50% of schools have access to this service does not stand up to scrutiny. The Minister is also aware——

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy's time is expired.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I will make this final point. The Minister is aware of a report which she has had on her desk for the past year and a half, namely, the implementation report from the National Council for Special Education. I asked the Minister a straight question in the House today and received a reply. A total of 42 actions are to be implemented in this area by her Department and related agencies for children with special needs. By this date, November 2007, the Minister was supposed to have in place 27 actions. When I received the reply today, how many actions did the Minister stand over in terms of having them in place? A big fat zero. That is the Minister's record. Let us leave the big speeches, PR occasions and all the cameras and happy-clappiness to one side and deal with the issues that confront our children and educationalists on a daily basis in their classes.

Amendment put.