Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me an opportunity to raise this important issue.

The Government has a poor record in assisting children with special needs. In the most recent budget many special needs assistants lost their jobs and the forthcoming budget and four year plan include plans to axe further special needs assistants. This is a disgrace.

The Government has turned its back on sufferers of dyslexia. When the country was wealthy it did not carry out a study to discover how many children suffer from the condition. For the past ten years, the Department of Education and Skills has not once increased the small annual grant of €63,500 it provides to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. The Government clearly has the wrong priorities when it fails to adequately fund associations such as the DAI and chooses instead to pay lip service to their work. It has squandered billions of euro in the past ten years and it is the most vulnerable who are paying the price.

I propose to raise some questions on Government policy on educational provision for children with autism spectrum disorder. It is estimated that the Department of Education and Skills has spent in excess of €80 million on a pilot project for ABA schools in the past ten years. The project was terminated without undertaking a proper evaluation of the effectiveness of the ABA pilot schools.

During a recent meeting with parents of children in one of the pilot schools a departmental official referred to a 2006 report entitled, An Evaluation of Educational Provision for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, which features details of visits to some of the ABA pilot schools carried out in 2001-02. The decision to close the ABA schools was based on reviews which had taken place eight years previously in a sample of the pilot schools. This is an example of highly flawed decision making.

Having spent almost €80 million on a pilot project, the Government has failed to evaluate the project adequately. This failure and the absence of a proper cost benefit analysis of ABA schools is a wanton waste of taxpayers' money and a dereliction of duty on the part of the Government.

The Department decided to replace ABA schools with special schools and ASD units which employ what is described as an eclectic approach to educating children with autism. However, no research has been produced to support the use of the Department's preferred approach. Departmental officials admitted recently that this was the case and the Department does not have any plans to evaluate ASD units.

The Minister for Education and Skills is pumping millions of euro into a teaching model whose effectiveness has not been evaluated. She clearly does not have an interest in the children who are affected by this decision. ABA schools have produced terrific results for children with autism. The Government should listen to the views expressed by parents on the teaching methods they want to have provided for their children. The young children in question deserve better from the State. They are being let down by the decisions that have been taken on this matter. Consequently, I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, to ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills to re-examine this issue.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I apologise that the Tánaiste cannot be present this evening. I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Coughlan. I thank Deputy Terence Flanagan for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the position regarding provision for children with special educational needs and to outline the enormous progress made in recent years on supports for these children. I wish to make clear that the education of children with special educational needs has, and remains, a key priority for the Government. The Government has put huge resources into schools to enable them to meet the demands of children with special educational needs. To this end, more than €1 billion has been allocated in the 2010 Department budget to support special education in schools.

Deputy Flanagan will be aware that the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 requires that all children with special educational needs shall be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have such needs unless the nature or degree of the need is such that to do so would be inconsistent with the best interests of the child or the effective provision of education for children with whom the child is to be educated. The Department of Education and Skills provides for a range of placement options and supports for schools that enrol pupils with special educational needs to ensure that, wherever a child is enrolled, he or she will have access to an appropriate education. Children with special educational needs may be enrolled in a mainstream school and attend all mainstream classes. Children who are fully integrated may receive additional teaching support through the learning support teacher or the resource teacher or both. If the child has care needs, he or she may receive support from a special needs assistant, SNA. In other cases, a child with special needs may enrol in a mainstream school and attend a special class. This provides an option of partial inclusion in mainstream classes in line with the child's abilities. Alternatively, if appropriate, the child may enrol in a special school. The Department supports special classes and special schools through the provision of lower pupil teacher ratios for such classes, ranging from 6:1 to 11:1, the provision of SNAs and enhanced levels of capitation funding.

At present, the Department funds more than 9,000 whole-time equivalent learning support-resource teacher posts, more than 10,000 whole-time equivalent SNA posts and more than 1,000 teachers in special schools. In addition, enhanced capitation funding is paid to special schools and in respect of special classes in mainstream schools. The Department also provides more than €50 million annually for special school transport arrangements and €1.3 million on assistive technology. Extensive teacher training and continuing professional development in the area of special educational needs is provided through the special education support service, SESS. In 2009, the SESS funded more than 23,000 teacher places in courses on special education. A visiting teacher service also is in place for children who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing. To further support the inclusion of children with special needs, all new school buildings and extensions are designed to enable access for all and the Department provides funding to adapt existing school buildings where required. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, through its network of more than 80 local special educational needs organisers, SENOs, supports schools, parents, children and teachers and will continue to do so in line with the Department's policy.

I again assure Deputy Flanagan that even in the current economic climate, the provision of appropriate educational intervention and supports for children with special educational needs will continue to be a key Government priority.

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

What about autistic children?