Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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The Minister of State is aware of the work at Rosedale School and he has visited it. It is a wonderful school that provides amazing services for young people throughout Galway city and county. Public representatives who have visited there with be familiar with it. I visited several months ago with Deputy Kyne. We toured the school and saw the amazing work people are doing under difficult circumstances.

The number of pupils in Rosedale School this year has increased to 26 from 20. This has put additional pressure on resources and facilities. As many of the children get older, their demands increase. There is an increased demand for what are called changing benches. These are used for children who spend the majority of their time in wheelchairs. They give the children a break from the confines of the wheelchair and allow them to stretch their arms and legs and be comfortable. They are also used to change children. The children in question cannot walk, talk, feed themselves or go to the toilet. The wonderful staff in this school must do that work. They need extra beds to be able to perform the simple function of taking children out of their wheelchairs and changing them.

Some of these children can require changing four or five times a day, which can take up to 15 minutes each time and requires two people. This issue pertains to people with severe to profound difficulties, both physical and intellectual, and the help they require.

In September 2013, Rosedale special school applied for funding for five additional beds to accommodate the school's additional needs on foot of the difficulties some of its students were facing and because of its new intake of five additional pupils. However, the school still has not received an answer from the Department. Initially, its application was refused and the school appealed. It has gone back to the Department but the staff members are at the end of their tether. It is appalling that this has happened to people who have been doing such incredible work in such difficult circumstances. A constituent of the Minister of State spent an hour and a half travelling on a bus from Gort to Rosedale special school. He was in pain because the bus journey is very difficult and confining and can cause distress. When he reached school, he could not be taken from his chair for quite some time because no spare bed on to which to bring him was available. Despite this, the back-and-forth nonsense continues, to the effect that this is not something that will be provided or that the Department should provide. The school authorities actually have been asked to change the name of the bed they require. While it is exactly the same bed, they have been asked to change the name in order that it sounds more educational. This is unacceptable and must be fixed. Last Friday, the school had in place a queueing system. People were obliged to queue in order that the children could be changed and this must stop.

The Minister of State should return to the Department and tell whoever is dealing with this fracas, this absolute nonsense of a process, this bureaucratic nightmare through which these children must suffer, to get this issue fixed. The Minister of State should tell those responsible that the school requires €10,000, in the overall scheme of things. It also is scandalous that €30,000 already has been spent by the Department to put in place the hoist that is necessary to lift the children out of the wheelchair to put them on the bed. Although the hoist is in place, there are no beds and although the hoist has been paid for, the Department will not pay for the beds. This must stop and while the Minister of State's intentions and motivations in this regard will be just as positive as are mine, he should return to the Department and get whoever is causing this nightmare and nonsense to fix it and solve this problem for these kids.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter because it gives me the opportunity to outline to the House the Department's policy on providing furniture and equipment for special needs pupils in general and the present position with regard to a request for five therapy beds for pupils in Rosedale school, Galway. My Department provides funding for furniture and equipment that is required for educational purposes. However, the provision of therapeutic equipment has been and remains outside the remit of the Department. When requests for loose furniture and equipment are received, the school authority is requested to provide justification for the provision of such equipment. This justification often is provided by means of a child-specific report, on the basis of an assessment by the occupational therapist or a special education teacher. It is not always possible to distinguish between educational and therapeutic uses for equipment, as often one piece of equipment can fulfil both needs.

As for Rosedale school, my Department already has provided funding in excess of €104,000 for specialist furniture and equipment, €72,682 of which was approved this year. In July 2013, the school authorities submitted four applications for therapy beds and one application for a changing-therapy bed for five pupils, three of whom were starting in the school in September 2013 and two of whom already attended the school. All five applications were supported by the senior physiotherapist attached to the school and the letters of support outlined that all five pupils concerned required daily one-to-one physiotherapy. The senior physiotherapist also stated that to assist staff to carry out this programme, therapy beds were required. The letters of support also stated that plinths also could be used for day-to-day personal care.

The school authority was informed in September 2013 that its application for funding was refused as the type of equipment being sought was outside the scope of educational equipment funded by the Department. The school authorities submitted an appeal in respect of this decision and while it accepted that the plinths provided a place for essential therapy, they also would be used to provide a toileting facility. My Department advised the school authority again that the provision of therapy beds was outside the remit of the Department but that it was open to the school to submit applications for additional changing beds, which also would be suitable for toileting facilities. On 11 November, the school authority submitted an application for five changing benches. As the quotation submitted in support of this application was for the same therapy beds for which the original submission was made in July, the school authority again was advised to submit a quotation for changing benches. These applications and the three quotations were received last Monday and are being considered actively by the Department at present. I assure the Deputy that the school authority will be informed of the outcome in the very near future.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State. I do not normally use the Topical Issue debate for this kind of subject, as I like to use it for raising more policy-orientated issues. However, the reason I raised this matter was I thought it might put a bomb under someone in the Department who finally would wake up. While the Minister of State's response notes that in July 2013, the school authority submitted an application for therapy beds, I have just outlined the conditions in which the children currently find themselves in their educational facility. They are queueing to get changed and having soiled themselves, they must sit and wait to be changed for the sake of €10,000. The school applied last July for permission for therapy beds but was obliged to submit a further application in November. It is now the end of November and yet this situation persists. This is not the first time that such equipment has been provided and the Department of Education and Skills has funded these beds previously. Moreover, it has provided a hoist to lift children out of their wheelchairs and into a bed and I was hopeful that today's debate might induce someone to decide this involves €10,000, which no one can question is needed, and simply to provide it. To be frank, I am somewhat disappointed by the answer from the Department of Education and Skills. I will make this point to the Minister of State and to the Minister, Deputy Quinn, when I see him. I will make this point to anyone from the Department of Education Skills on whom I can get my hands, because I simply will not accept that this issue should continue and roll on for as long as it has. It is completely unacceptable and is completely wrong. It is morally wrong, as the people to whom I refer cannot talk, walk or feed themselves and they need to be changed. At present, they are sitting in their wheelchairs, having soiled themselves, and are waiting for an opportunity to change themselves . However, I am stuck with a letter telling me that an application was made in July 2013 that still has not been sorted out by the end of November but that if the school holds on, it still will be considered at some time in the future. This is not acceptable and in his response, I ask the Minister of State to take personal ownership of this matter as someone with a vested interest in it, because his constituents attend the school, and to ensure the matter is solved sooner and is not allowed to drag on again in perpetuity without resolution.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, there is a significant difference between a changing bench, which is provided primarily for the toileting purposes of children with severe and profound special needs, and therapy beds, which are far more holistic pieces of equipment that address issues other than the simple toileting facilities. The application received in July was for therapy benches, which I understand are normally funded by the Department of Health. Had that application been for changing benches last July, that application would have been assessed as such. As those benches had been funded by my Department in the past, one could reasonably expect they already would have been funded and already would be in place. There has been confusion and perhaps a breakdown in communication between the school concerned and my Department. I do not lay blame at anyone's door but changing benches have been funded in the past and I assure the Deputy that changing benches will be funded in the very near future. This will not drag on for anything longer then perhaps two or three more days. The application in question is with the Department now and is being assessed. I fully and wholeheartedly agree with the Deputy that neither children nor adults with special needs should be subjected to those difficulties. The issue will be resolved and perhaps could have been resolved a lot sooner had those differences of opinion not arisen as to how precisely one would describe these pieces of equipment.