Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, to the House. As usual, he will have a standard response.

It is important to outline the seriousness of the withdrawal of special educational needs services in County Donegal. I am trying, with great difficulty, to get to the bottom of it. A major barrier is that neither the Department of Education and Science nor the Department of Health and Children is willing to take responsibility. The Opposition has spoken at length about its objection to quangos. The National Council for Special Education is a quango and is not taking responsibility for the withdrawal of services for children with special educational needs.

The children to whom I refer, whose needs might arise from having asthma, ADHD, Down's syndrome, spina bifida, Asperger's syndrome or autism, require the services in question. They are the most vulnerable people in society, but they are being ignored and neglected. Let me give an example. Carndonagh secondary school, formerly the largest secondary school in the country, had six special needs assistants last year but that number is to be reduced to three this year. The children who need the assistants are still at school and, moreover, three extra children are now enrolled there.

Over 300 parents and teachers and other concerned individuals met publicly in Ballyliffin in north Inishowen last Monday night to articulate the serious need for services for the children with special educational needs. The services were put in place last year but are to be withdrawn in September. I am talking parochially but the quango that is the NCSE, the Department of Education and Science or the Department of Health and Children need to state why the children are being discriminated against and why parents are being left in limbo regarding whether their children will be able go to school in September.

Yesterday, a parent drove from Letterkenny to Dublin. I told her I would meet her tonight or that I would meet her in Letterkenny on Friday. However, she replied that her ten year old daughter, who has spina bifida and is in a wheelchair, has had her hours slashed and the situation was so serious that she will not be sending her child to school in September. It is ironic that the Minister of State with responsibility for integration is present. While that is a completely different portfolio, this pertains to the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream classrooms. However, funding is being slashed and special needs assistants are being withdrawn from such schools.

I have great difficulty in getting to the bottom of this issue and together with parents in my constituency, I need to know the reason such services are being withdrawn. More specifically, why is no one answerable or accountable for such decisions? I raised this matter this evening to ascertain the terms of reference of the special education needs organiser and the identity of whoever drew them up. Moreover, where do accountability and responsibility lie? I would welcome a deviation on the part of the Minister of State from his prepared departmental script and would appreciate it, were he in a position to indicate to the House a way forward for the most vulnerable.

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to have been given the opportunity by the Deputy to clarify the position regarding the matters raised by him. The National Council for Special Education was set up to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities with particular emphasis on children.

The Deputy may find it helpful if I outline the background to the establishment of the council. It was clear that the Department did not have the capacity to deliver the required level of service to schools, parents and pupils under its existing structures. In October 1999, a high level planning group was established to review current procedures and to make recommendations on the arrangements that should be put in place to ensure the effective provision of a high-quality co-ordinated education service for students with disabilities. The planning group highlighted the over-centralised structure of the Department and its lack of any locally based capacity for service delivery and co-ordination as key deficiencies in the system. The planning group recommended the establishment of a National Council for Special Education to address these deficiencies.

The National Council for Special Education was established as an independent statutory body by order of the Minister for Education and Science in December 2003. With effect from 1 October 2005, it has been formally established under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, the EPSEN Act. That Act sets out both the general functions of the council and its specific function in respect of the provisions of the Act. The EPSEN Act 2004 provides a framework for delivery of special education services, as well as statutorily underpinning the work of the National Council for Special Education.

The general functions of the council as set out in section 20 of the EPSEN Act may be summarised as follows: Planning and co-ordinating provision of education and support services to children with special educational needs; disseminating information on best practice concerning the education of children with special educational needs; providing information to parents regarding the entitlements of children with special educational needs; assessing and reviewing resources required by children with special educational needs; ensuring that progress of students with special educational needs is monitored and reviewed; and advising the Department on matters relating to special education. In addition, the council has specific functions regarding the core provisions of the Act, such as assessment and individual education plans.

The council's staff includes a chief executive officer and administrative staff who are based in Trim, County Meath. Special educational needs organisers, SENOs, of whom there are approximately 80, are deployed on a nationwide basis with at least one SENO being deployed in each county. The SENOs process applications from schools for additional teaching and special needs assistant support for children with special educational needs and issue decisions to schools directly. The council took over this function from the Department in January 2005 and operates within the Department's criteria in allocating such support. These criteria have been articulated in various Department circulars and copies have been circulated to schools.

In considering applications for teaching and special needs assistant supports for individual pupils, the SENOs take account of the needs identified in the child's professional report and decide whether the circumstances come within the Department's criteria. They then consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupil from its current level of resources. A child in a mainstream primary school may, for example, be entitled to additional resource teaching provision in school under the terms of the general allocation system of teaching supports, whereby such schools have been provided with a number of resource teaching hours based on the number of pupils in the school. A child with more significant needs may be entitled to an allocation of additional resource hours if the child's assessment places the child within the low incidence category of special need, as defined by the Department's circular.

In the context of special needs assistant support, a child needing occasional assistance with toileting may, for example, only require a limited amount of a special needs assistant's time, which may be available within the school. As the Deputy may be aware, special needs assistant support in schools is intended to address the care needs of pupils with special educational needs. The criteria for the provision of special needs assistant support envisage that such support is sanctioned when a child has a significant medical need, a significant impairment of physical or sensory function or when the child is a danger to him or herself or other pupils. It is to be expected that very often, this level of care should diminish as the child matures and consequently, the level of special needs assistant support required in the school also will diminish. When a child with special educational needs is in receipt of additional supports in a school and moves school or moves to post-primary education, and no other child with special needs enrols in the school, then the resource, such as resource teaching hours or special needs assistant support or both, is withdrawn from the first school and, if still warranted by the child's needs, is sanctioned for the new school.

All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents also may contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie. The Deputy will be aware that the education of children with special educational needs is a key policy priority for the Government. Much has already been achieved in this area in respect of delivering additional teaching and care supports. There have been significant developments in special education since 1998 involving enhanced levels of provision, as well as new structural and legislative frameworks for the delivery of services to pupils with special educational needs. At present, there are more than 19,000 staff in schools working solely with children with special needs. This includes almost 10,000 special needs assistants, compared with only 300 in 1997. There also are more than 7,800 resource and learning support teachers, compared with approximately 2,000 in 1998. More than 1,100 other teachers support children in our special schools, while hundreds more work in special classes.

These additional supports are allocated as necessary by the National Council for Special Education in line with my Department's policy to support children with special educational needs. It also must be acknowledged that, during the necessary period of preparation and planning for the roll-out of the EPSEN Act 2004, my Department continues to expand capacity and services for students with special educational needs.

I again thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to clarify the position on this matter.