Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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60. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills regarding section 6 of Circular 0030/2014, the reason for the decision to prohibit health staff from giving their professional opinion about the educational resources required by a child with special educational needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29254/14]

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Health staff have been directed by the HSE not to include references in their reports to the specific quantum of educational resources because, according to the circular, they do not have knowledge or awareness of the current resources available. This makes it clear that the Department is unlikely to to allocate special needs assistant, SNA, posts to meet individual children's needs. It appears that the Department's considerations are more about what resources are available than what children need.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Circular 0030/2014 does not prohibit health staff from giving their professional opinion on the care needs of a child with special needs. The circular states professional reports and assessments play an important role in the SNA allocation process. There is no question in that regard.

Under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act, it is a statutory function of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to assess and review the resources required for special educational provision. In doing so the NCSE takes into account professional assessments of care needs but also considers the whole school environment, observations on a child's interaction in the classroom and the views of the child's parents, teachers and national educational psychologists, as necessary.

Circular 0030/2014 indicates that the HSE has directed staff not to include in their reports references to the specific quantum of educational resources but rather to set out the care needs of a child, while outlining that it is ultimately a matter for the NCSE to review the resources required in a school to support these needs.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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It seems strange that qualified professionals are not being allowed to make necessary recommendations. There is a great deal of disquiet among parents of vulnerable children about the qualifications of special educational needs organisers, SENOs. For example, they may not hold relevant qualifications in psychology or disability services. Reports from fully qualified and accredited educational psychologists and psychiatrists are not being accepted by the Department of Education and Skills and the HSE. Parents find it difficult to understand why a SENO who may be less qualified can ignore the recommendations of an independent educational psychologist who is an expert in that field. The Minister of State will admit that SENOs are not as well qualified as these experts, yet the Department seems to be less inclined to take the experts' opinions on board.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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In determining the resources and SNA supports required for a child with special needs to attend a mainstream school it is advisable to call on a suite of expertise from within the HSE, the medical profession and the NCSE.

That expertise emanating from within the NCSE is specialised, having been acquired over a certain number of years of working in the educational sphere with children with special needs and recognising the challenges they often face on first entering mainstream education. Nobody is suggesting for a moment that the professional opinion of health staff is not a valuable source of expertise to have in determining the needs of a child throughout his or her life, but in this unique setting within the school we must draw upon and ultimately trust the expertise of our network of special educational needs organisers, SENOs, under the guidance and expertise of the NCSE, in determining what exactly are the child's needs and the supports required for that child to successfully attend mainstream school. That is ultimately the judgment call that we must trust, and we do trust it.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister of State is making it plain that the reason the experts' opinions are not being taken fully on board is that they do not have the knowledge or awareness of the current resources. Is this not an admission that the child's individual needs are secondary to the resources that are available? The Minister of State might say it is about time I started living in the real world and that is the way it is, but at least he should admit it and stop pretending that the child's needs come first.

The State is forcing some parents to go to court. Recently, in a case involving two families with children with Down's syndrome, Mr. Justice Nicholas Kearns directed the Department of Education and Skills to give the children the maximum resource teaching hours so they could stay in mainstream schooling. It is disappointing if the State is going to drive parents into the courts to get a fair deal. We know that only those parents who can afford to go to court will get a fair deal for their children and that children from less privileged backgrounds or from marginalised communities whose parents do not have the resources to go to court will not have the opportunity of using the courts because they cannot afford it.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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It is most certainly not the intention of the Department to force anybody to go court to have the maximum possible benefits conferred upon their children in terms of their special requirements in a classroom setting. I want to point out to the Deputy once again that health professionals have an expertise in the care needs of children with special needs - nobody is denying that. That expertise is valuable in determining ultimately what types of support are available within the school setting. It is the NCSE or the network of SENOs across the country who have that unique expertise in determining the supports required. In doing so, they need to look at the layout of the school, what other special needs supports are already in place and whether they need to be augmented to prepare for a particular child. They must have an opportunity to observe the child's performance and behaviour in a classroom setting and his or her interaction with the teachers. It is only they who have the expertise to determine that.

In response to an earlier question, I pointed out that at the end of this year there will be no question of diminishing resources for children with special needs. We will have the highest number of SNAs in the history of State. We will have 480 extra resource teachers in place at the end of this year and we will have another 480 extra resource teachers in place at the end of next year. We are working hard within the resources available to us to support children with special needs.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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We need to make progress.