Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Before the last general election the Tánaiste made a significant commitment in regard to people, particularly young children, with disabilities and special needs. There is an unacceptable situation facing children in terms of the provision of special needs supports in our schools. The deadline for applications for special needs assistants is tomorrow, 20 September, whereas last year it was 15 October. By definition, therefore, the Government is putting far more pressure on schools, parents and children in this regard. We have 71,000 children starting school this month, 10,000 more than last year. The shortening of the deadline is a back-door way of implementing unacceptable cuts. We are witnessing a constant limiting and restriction of support.

I wish to raise a case which illustrates this very seriously. I do not normally like to raise individual cases, but I have the permission of the parents of Kate Crowley, who is aged five and from Cork, to do so. She is a child who was presented at birth with an extraordinary set of challenges. She has had five surgeries and has multiple issues in terms of special needs. She is wheelchair-bound, has spinal rods, severe respiratory conditions and hearing problems, to mention but a few. She has come through her life thus far with a remarkable fighting spirit. She is intellectually very bright and has tremendous support from her parents.

Kate was refused a dedicated special needs assistant and was ultimately told she could have access, with five other children, to the services of one assistant. From my experience in education and health down through the years, this struck me as a case obviously in need of address. I raise it because it illustrates that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system when a child like Kate Crowley is refused a special needs assistant. In my humble opinion it is very obvious that she should have one. She has not yet started school this September despite the multiplicity of conditions she has.

Why is it that the system now seems to be restricting access to education and making parents fight and struggle all along the way? Kate's parents have been through the mill and are happy to be supporting their child, but they should not have been put through this particular struggle. There is a need for advocacy at the centre of the system, but it is missing. This case illustrates the problem more than anything I have come across in recent years.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I am not familiar with the details of Kate Crowley's situation, as referred to by the Deputy. The Minister for Education and Skills has likewise indicated that he is not aware of it. I assure the Deputy, however, that the Minister will examine the case, find out what has happened and respond to the Deputy very quickly indeed. It is fair to say that where somebody has a need, that need should be addressed.

On the general issue of special needs provision in our schools, despite the very challenging financial circumstances the country has faced, this Government has protected the budget for special education of €1.3 billion. Government policy has focused on ensuring that all children have access to an education that is appropriate to their needs, preferably in mainstream schools. A child-centred approach to the education of all children with special educational needs is promoted to ensure a continuum of special needs provision. We have protected the number of resource teachers and special needs assistants in schools. There are currently 10,575 special needs assistants in the system and 5,265 resource teachers.

The National Council for Special Education has announced the opening of 118 new special classes this month which will cater for up to 700 pupils at both primary and post-primary level. This is in addition to the 242 special classes already created during the lifetime of this Government, which represents a 50% increase in the availability of such classes since 2011. There are now more than 700 special classes catering for 5,000 pupils. More than 1,100 teachers are being provided in special schools to look after pupils with various disabilities at a much reduced pupil-teacher ratio, PTR. For example, the autism PTR is 6:1 and the moderate general learning disability PTR is 8:1.

In overall terms, 15% of the total education budget is spent on special education. That is as it should be. We all recognise that the special educational needs of children must and should be met.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am surprised the Minister for Education and Skills is not aware of the case to which I referred, given that I wrote to him about it some weeks ago, as did others. Perhaps he will check that correspondence. The situation is very well known in the Department and in the National Council for Special Education. Rather than go public on this issue initially, I wrote about it. I just could not believe it was happening despite all the official rhetoric.

That rhetoric is part of the problem. I have listened to what the Tánaiste said, but when one talks to parents, teachers and school principals one hears a different story. A few nights ago in Cork a young resource teacher called me into her kitchen at 8.45 p.m. to tell me about the work she is doing and how low she is in spirit as a consequence of the cuts being imposed in resource teaching in her school in the past year or so.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Does the Deputy have a question?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The message we are getting from parents, teachers and children is very different from what we are being told officially. There is a problem here. The case of Kate Crowley illustrates more than anything else that the system, at its core, lacks advocacy for the child. It should be about the facilitation of children's constitutional right to an education. That should be the driving spirit behind how people within the system work, whereas what we are now getting is a shortening of deadlines.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is way over time.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister for Education and Skills agree to extend the deadline? Ms Sheila Nunan of the INTO has warned it will have a major impact.

Will the Government exceed the resource teacher cap, for example, if new needs emerge in the autumn? The problem with the deadline is that, with new children starting, needs can emerge through diagnosis and monitoring by teachers in a school. Will the cap be exceeded, if necessary?

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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We are dealing with two matters. The Government has protected provision for special needs education and I have outlined the details, including additional special classes and the measures taken to protect special needs assistants and resource teachers. The question arises as to why we find individual cases or a particular problem in an individual school-----

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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There are lots of individual cases.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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----- where a child clearly needs provision and ask why the matter is not being addressed. The Minister for Education and Skills is doing a number of things to square these two points. He has appointed Mr. Eamon Stack to carry out an assessment of the allocation model to discover why the protection of resources does not appear, in some cases, to be translated on the ground. The Minister will have an interim report from Mr. Stack at the beginning of October.

Deputy Micheál Martin raised the issue of the requirement for earlier application for special needs assistants and resource teachers. That is precisely to enable the difference between the making of the general allocation which has been protected and what is happening on the ground in individual schools to be shortened in order that the matter can be addressed quickly and resources can be deployed to where they are needed.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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What happens if something emerges after the deadline?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Research published by the British Medical Journal has confirmed that this state has seen one of the highest increases in deaths by suicide directly related to the recession. The enormous pressure exerted by household and mortgage debt has literally become unbearable for many families, as was highlighted tragically by the death of former Priory Hall resident Mr. Fiachra Daly. The Tánaiste personally promised to make the mortgage crisis a priority, yet the Government is willing to allow the banks to set the agenda and the number of families in mortgage distress has doubled on his watch. The response of the banks has been to issue 15,000 repossession letters to struggling families. We recently heard on the airwaves worrying statements by a number of personal insolvency practitioners. I have three questions for the Tánaiste. Will the Government force the banks to wipe out the outstanding mortgages and allow the former residents of Priory Hall to hand back their keys? Will it give these families a fresh start?

On the broader issue of mortgages, can the Tánaiste guarantee no family will be denied access to a personal insolvency practitioner because of an inability to pay upfront fees of the order of €5,000 or €7,000? Will he guarantee that no family will be excluded from the insolvency process because of a refusal by the banks to engage with the insolvency practitioners because the family simply holds one mortgage?

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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With regard to Priory Hall, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, has initiated a process and within a short period of time it will work up solutions with stakeholders. The process started this morning and the Minister expects to have a report shortly. The Priory Hall issue is being dealt with quite quickly by the Government and I hope for a solution to the problem within a short period.

The Government has made the mortgage crisis a priority. That is why we changed the law to introduce personal insolvency legislation and why we have introduced, for the first time, non-judicial debt settlement arrangements and put in place the personal insolvency service, which has just begun its work. There is progress being made in that regard. The Personal Insolvency Act was signed into law at the end of last year and the personal insolvency service was formally launched on 1 March. The Central Bank has set targets requiring the main mortgage lenders to offer durable solutions to mortgage holders over 90 days in arrears. The revised code of conduct on mortgage arrears was published by the Central Bank in June and the Department of Finance continues to engage with lenders. The Central Bank's end of June mortgage data indicated the stock of personal mortgage restructures was around 79,000. Some 53% of these restructured accounts are not in arrears, which indicates that the banks are taking some early measures to address mortgage difficulties. It is welcome that the Central Bank stated over 76% of the restructured mortgage holders were deemed to be meeting the terms of their agreement. As indicated previously, the Department of Finance has more recent data from the main banks which indicates that at the end of July some 1,800 split mortgages were in place, 12,600 accounts had been subject to a term extension restructure and that a further 12,000 accounts had had arrears capitalised. Progress is being made on the issue of mortgage restructuring. The whole purpose of the legislation and the means put in place are such that every family in mortgage difficulty will have access to the process and system. The Government will closely monitor what is happening in practice because the outcome we want to achieve is to ensure that, one by one, households in mortgage difficulty and arrears will have their mortgage problem solved using the processes put in place to enable people to put the mortgage crisis behind them and get on with the rest of their lives.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Tánaiste is demonstrating remarkable faith in the very banks that issued 15,000 legal repossession letters to families that they believe offer a durable and sustainable solution for these families. The people of Priory Hall have heard terms such as process, stakeholders, solutions and Government commitments, but what we need to know is that they will have the slate wiped clean and that after two torturous years and the tragedy therein, they will have a real opportunity to move on with their lives. Will the Tánaiste tell us whether the option of wiping the slate clean, the necessary solution, is being considered?

The Tánaiste gave us an account of the passage of the personal insolvency legislation, but the difficulty is that we have heard from the horse's mouth, from personal insolvency practitioners, that upfront fees of €5,000 or €7,000 will be required to avail of their services. The Tánaiste needs to tell the public that this is not going to happen and that people will not be barred from the process because of exorbitant fees. Personal insolvency practitioners have said publicly that the banks are already telling them that they will not deal with them in respect of single mortgage holders. The Government has let the banks away with lots as, historically and in contemporary terms, they were allowed to run riot and they hold all the cards. Surely the Tánaiste has something to say when the professionals who will run the service say in public that the banks are already telling them that they will not deal with personal insolvency practitioners in resolving debt issues for families with single mortgages, which represents the bulk of those in distress. The legislation is all well and good, but that does not mean that the Tánaiste's job is done. We must be sure that, owing to excessive fees or an arrogant stance taken by the banks, people will not find themselves on the wrong end of this. I seek assurances from the Tánaiste that he will make sure that, on the issue of fees and the banks playing ball, these matters will be dealt with adequately.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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First, the Priory Hall issue is being dealt with. As I have said, the process that has been put in place is intended to be activated quickly. I will not prejudge the outcome of that. It will be dealt with quickly. The residents of Priory Hall have waited a very long time. I accept that there were judicial issues, legal issues, etc., for a period of time. The problems in Priory Hall are being dealt with and there will be an outcome to that without undue delay.

Second, on the mortgage issue, the reason we introduced the legislation, established the personal insolvency service and put in place the various methods for non-judicial debt settlement is to ensure the mortgage arrears problems that many households and families have in this country will be resolved. Nobody will be barred from that process. Neither exorbitant fees nor the attitudes of banks, professionals or anybody else will debar anybody from access to that process.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Has the Tánaiste told the banks that?

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Our objective has always been to put in place the pathway and architecture to enable households and families to secure a settlement of their mortgage arrears difficulties with their financial institutions. That has to be done on a case-by-case basis. Progress is being made on it. We will continue to monitor it because at the end of the day-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Tánaiste tell the banks and the practitioners that?

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Absolutely.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, the time is up. I thank the Tánaiste.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Let me tell them publicly.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Tánaiste should do that.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I say to the banks that we want the issue of mortgage arrears with households resolved and we do not want any issue of attitude, arrogance or any other term that Deputy McDonald wants to put on it. We want this problem solved. That is why we passed the legislation. That is why we established the personal insolvency service. That is also why such provision was included in the recapitalisation of the banks at the time.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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They told them two years ago.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Labour's way or the banks' way.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Let nobody be in any doubt about our determination as a Government. We have put in place the legislation and the method - the personal insolvency service - for persons to resolve their mortgage difficulties, and the banks and everybody else need to get on with that. The Central Bank has set targets and we will monitor it, month by month, until the problem is fully resolved.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Before I call Deputy Healy, I ask speakers to respect the Chair and the time limits imposed by this House.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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When will the Government stop terrorising the sick and elderly across this country? The Government's austerity budget of this year has targeted the withdrawal of 40,000 existing medical cards from the sick and elderly across the country. That policy is being implemented on the Government's behalf by the Health Service Executive. It is not possible for me to overstate the fact that the sick and elderly are traumatised and in daily fear of losing their medical cards. The postman or postwoman, who has always been a welcome sight for the elderly, is now a source of anxiety in case he or she is bringing that dreaded white envelope that states that one is under review and gives the threat of one's medical card being withdrawn.

Let us be clear what is happening. The sick and elderly are being targeted by the Government to pay banks and bondholders and to protect the 10,000 top earners in this country, who each earn on average €595,000 per year. These medical card holders are being specially and specifically targeted. They are in their 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s. Their cards are not due to be reviewed. They hold current, fully valid medical cards assessed and approved by the Health Service Executive with expiry dates up to 2020, but they are now being punished to satisfy the greed of bankers and bondholders. Does the Tánaiste think this is fair, and will he do anything about it? Has he or the Government any compassion for the sick and elderly?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank Deputy Healy.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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Will the Tánaiste immediately instruct the Health Service Executive to desist from punishing and hounding the elderly?

It has always been the case - I will finish with this - that persons with medical conditions that require urgent or ongoing medical treatment have qualified for discretionary medical cards. That practice has now stopped. Persons with cancer diagnoses and with, for instance, motor neuron disease are now being disqualified from eligibility for the discretionary medical card. I am sure the Tánaiste believes that is unfair also. I ask him to ensure that such a practice stops and that the Health Service Executive is instructed to ensure that these patients get their discretionary medical cards.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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There are more persons today with medical cards than at any time in the history of the State.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Tell that to those who are looking for one.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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There are currently 50%-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Men.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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-----who have medical cards. This is at a time when, as we are all aware, there has been extreme pressure on the public finances.

It has always been the case that medical cards are reviewed upon renewal. The Government's approach is that medical card applications should be looked at sympathetically. The financial circumstances of individuals and their medical needs are taken into account.

We have all had experience of individual cases that, from time to time, have had to be pursued with the HSE about the issue of a medical card, but I assure Deputy Healy there is no targeting of any medical card holders. The Government is clearly determined that the medical needs of persons in this country are met. That is why we have worked so hard to restore the country's public finances so that we can continue to meet the needs of those who need medical cards and, as I stated, there are more medical cards under this Government than were ever issued in the history of the State.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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The Tánaiste almost boasts that the number of medical cards have increased. So they have, but, of course, that is far from an achievement. That is, in fact, an indictment of the Government. It is an indictment of the austerity policies that have driven employees out of work, that have driven incomes down and that have put applicants under medical card limits that are most stringent and have already been reduced this year. Far from being an achievement, this is an indictment of the austerity policies of the Government and it is certainly not anything to boast about.

The Tánaiste has engaged in the usual practice. He has not answered the question. I asked him specifically about medical cards being reviewed which are not for review and about discretionary medical cards for particular cases. He has chosen not to answer those questions. Of course, that is the usual tactic in this Chamber. The Tánaiste may very well get away with that here in the rarefied atmosphere of the Dáil Chamber but he certainly will not get away with it when he knocks on doors for local and European elections next year.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank Deputy Healy.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I also want to ask the Tánaiste when the medical card income limits will be reviewed and increased. Whether or not he knows it, they have not been increased since 2006. In fact, some of these limits - including that pertaining to travel to work, which is discriminatory towards those living in rural areas where no public transport is available - have worsened over the past 12 months. I ask the Tánaiste to immediately instruct the HSE to ensure that the sick and elderly are not targeted and that medical problems are dealt with on a discretionary basis, particularly for cancer and motor neuron disease cases.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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It is perfectly clear that Deputy Healy raised this issue to make a political point and a political charge against the Government, particularly the Labour Party.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I want to answer it in that fashion. The Deputy says we have targeted medical card holders. He wants to give the impression that the Government is taking medical cards from people. I have told the Deputy that it is a fact that more medical cards have been issued under this Government than has ever happened before.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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The Tánaiste should deal with the specific cases.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I cannot deal with specific cases unless the Deputy provides me with the detail. If the Deputy wishes to give me the detail of specific cases-----

An Ceann Comhairle:

This is Leaders' Questions. The Deputy can put questions to the Minister for Health.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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If the Deputy wishes to give specific cases we will deal with specific cases but that is not what he is doing; he is making a political charge. He also has made a wild charge about losing jobs. The jobs were lost by the previous Government at a rate of 250,000 in the three years before this Government took office. In the past 12 months alone, over 30,000 additional jobs have been created in this country and we have a lot more to do. The level of unemployment has dropped for the first time since the beginning of the crisis and it is now down to 13.5% from over 15%. The number of people who are long-term unemployed is also down from 9.2% to 8.1%. We have a lot more to do in that area, including the introduction of the youth guarantee to get young people in particular back to work; increasing investment in our country in order to create jobs and delivering better public services, including the delivery of more medical cards with less money available to the State. That is the achievement of this Government and we are going to continue to do it. I know that every single day the Deputy has an opportunity he will come in here to berate and denounce that achievement because that is the political game he is pursuing. Let us concentrate less on the political charges and more on the needs of the people of this country which this Government is delivering on.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Put on the green jersey.

Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Even Deputy Mattie McGrath disagrees with Deputy Seamus Healy.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank Deputy Mattie McGrath for his assistance.