Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to raise this serious matter on behalf of some of the weakest people in society. While the issue relates to people in my constituency, the consequences of this decision go beyond St. Raphael's special school in Celbridge, County Kildare.

This Friday, a total of 4.5 special needs assistants will be made redundant from the school. An appeal has been made by the school to the National Council for Special Education but that appeal has been rejected. The school has been informed that this decision is final, yet children who commenced in the school last September have not yet been seen by a special needs assistant and they will be deeply affected by the redundancies. Some of the children have been categorised as having profound disabilities. It is said that a society is judged by how it treats its weakest members. These children have varying care needs. They also have educational needs. We take our ability to communicate for granted, but these children and their parents know what it is like for that skill to be absent.

Not everyone is born with the same range of skills and talents. Some of the children who have been affected by the cuts are non-verbal. Some are making good progress since they commenced in St. Raphael's. One parent told me that prior to going to the school, the only responses her child could make was to scream or to cry. Now that child can identify a glass of water or a food item, and this has made a profound difference to the lives of the whole family.

I ask that a proper independent appeals mechanism be put in place with parental input as a right. They did not have an input into the appeal made by the school. Article 42 of the Constitution states the family is the primary and natural educator of the child, yet there is no provision for the family to be involved in the appeals process. This is a grievance which concerns people.

This is an issue of natural justice. These children have not been assessed and this is wrong. I ask that at the very least, until the special educational needs organiser can assess these children and their needs, the decision on redundancies would be deferred.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this issue as it gives me an opportunity to clarify the position on the matter raised by her which is of considerable importance, especially for those directly involved.

The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is responsible, through its network of local special educational needs organisers, SENOs, for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants, SNAs, to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

St. Raphael's special school is a designated school for children with moderate general learning disability, although the school also caters for some pupils who have severe levels of learning disability. I understand the school has 53 pupils enrolled and has 11 teachers, including a principal, and 20 special needs assistants. This results in an overall staffing to pupil ratio of one staff member per 1.7 pupils in the school, nearly one to one.

The nature of the disabilities of the children attending this school means they have significant education and care needs. This is reflected in the high level of staffing and SNA support which has been allocated to the school. The NCSE has advised my Department that it considers this level of staffing to be sufficient to meet the special educational and care needs of all the 53 pupils enrolled in the school, including the five pupils specifically referred to by the Deputy.

I also wish to advise the Deputy that the NCSE has issued a circular to all schools advising of the SNA allocation process for the 2011-12 school year. A key feature of the amended scheme will be to provide for an annual allocation of SNA support to eligible schools. The NCSE will consider applications for additional SNA support in the context of this process for the 2011-12 school year. Schools will engage with the NCSE in this regard ahead of the next school year and the NCSE will review the SNA staffing requirements for schools, taking into account all the students who will be attending school from September next and any new students the school intends to enrol. As such, the overall SNA allocation for St. Raphael's special school will be reviewed for the coming school year in this context. It is open to schools to contact their local special educational needs organiser should they have any queries in this regard.

The reduction in a number of SNA posts in St. Raphael's special school during the present school year relates to a nationwide review of all schools' SNA allocation which has been carried out by the NCSE in recent years. My Department requested the NCSE to review all SNA posts nationally to ensure that SNA posts were allocated to schools in line with the care needs of the pupils and that any excess posts would be withdrawn. The purpose of the review was to ensure that the criteria governing the allocation of such posts were properly met.

It is important to understand that SNA allocations are not permanent. The level of SNA support allocated to a school is increased or decreased as pupils who qualify for SNA support enrol or leave a school. They are also decreased where a child's care needs may have diminished overtime. In other words success may result in the SNA support being deemed to be no longer required.

The programme for Government clearly states that education will be a priority for the Government and that we will endeavour to protect and enhance the educational experience of children, young people and students. To that end, we will endeavour to protect front-line services in education. However, the fiscal position is extremely difficult and the country is effectively in receivership. It is necessary to ensure that educational services are delivered within the resources available. I intend to prioritise and support special educational services, though I cannot revisit the previous Government's decision to place a cap on the number of posts available under the special needs assistant scheme. It should be noted however, that there are 10,575 posts available nationally under the SNA scheme to provide support for eligible children. This should be seen in comparison with 10,543 SNA posts in place at the end of December 2010 and 10,342 posts at the end of 2009.

It is considered that with equitable and careful management and distribution of these resources there should be sufficient posts to provide access to SNA support for all children who require such care support to attend school in accordance with my Department's criteria.

My Department and I will be glad to consider any suggestions from school management or parent representative organisations as to how the allocation of SNA resources can best be managed within the context of the overall limit on SNA numbers that has been established. In this regard I am committed to making whatever improvements are possible to the resource allocation system. I thank the Deputy once again for raising this matter.