Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, for attending. I appreciate the difficult task she has in trying to rectify what seems to be a crisis in special needs assistant, SNA, shortages and allocations. At the same time, I must speak up on behalf of the parents of children with special needs. Principals of national schools throughout the country, and in west Cork, seem to be engaged in a constant battle for extra SNA allocation. These principals are already dealing with extra Covid measures such as those announced last night. They must explain to parents why their children must now wear face masks. They are dealing with the prevention of Covid, pods and ventilation and they have an extra battle to get SNA allocation for the students who deserve this help and support. There seems to be a particular problem in and around the Skibbereen area because schools are contacting my office and pleading for help, including Dreeny National School, Caheragh National School, Ballydehob National School, and St. Joseph's National School, Skibbereen. I do not expect the Minister of State to be familiar with each of the schools individually, but there is a major shortage of SNAs in and around this area and the situation is at crisis point.

I will try to outline the difficulties the schools have. I will not name the individual school, but the schools are all in or around the Skibbereen area. One school has a child with Down's syndrome, a child with severe autism and a child with spina bifida. The school has an allocation of 1.83 SNAs. Because of the lack of mobility, the child with spina bifida requires two SNAs to physically lift the child into the hoist apparatus used. That requires approximately two hours of SNA help per day, and it leads to a situation where the principal, who is in the classroom, must look after the other two children with special needs requirements, without any SNA support whatsoever. One of the children is a flight risk. In addition to everything else the principal must deal with; it is not good enough that they are left without support for two hours. This is the type of thing that is happening.

In another two-teacher school, a junior class has two children with significant needs and the senior class also has two children with significant needs. The SNA allocation for the entire school is 0.5. It has been said time and time again that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, seems to have no idea of the reality on the ground for these principals, parents and students. One parent, who is in social housing and is on a low income, has offered to help out financially and pay for extra SNA support.

The final example I will give is a school that has one class with severe and profound difficulties. The SNA allocation for the class is 2.87. There are five students in the class, but two of them have almost no mobility. Again, two of the SNAs must bring those students to the bathroom, leaving the rest of the class in the care of the special needs teacher.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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We are running out of time.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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This is the type of thing that is happening on the ground.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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We are way over time.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is proof that the NCSE has no idea of what is happening on the ground and that needs to be resolved.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for comprehensively outlining the SNA allocations issues west Cork in particular faces.

I will put in context my role as Minister of State with responsibility for special education in the rolling out and administering the €2.2 billion budget we secured this year, which is more than 25% of the entire education budget. That is an increase of 60% since 2011. Within the €2.2 billion resource, we managed to secure funding for an unprecedented number of 1,165 SNAs. By the end of December 2022, we will have 19,169 SNAs circulating within the education sector. That is an increase of 81%. The statistics can sound abstract and cold when we are talking about special education. I simply outline them to show the Deputy the progress that has been made in the sector. That is not to say that, on occasion, schools will not require additionality of SNA posts. The Deputy outlined some of the matters faced by schools in Skibbereen.

He will be aware of the exceptional review process, which is a valuable process whereby a school can apply directly to the NCSE to increase its allocation in circumstances where it is of the view that such an increase is required. He outlined some cases. I assume these are mainstream schools as opposed to special schools. It is important to stress that the allocation for SNAs in April 2021 has remained at that level. The front-loading allocation model will be introduced in September next year and it may benefit the schools to which the Deputy referred. The allocation is purely based on the school profile, as opposed to the individual needs of the children within the school. It is up to the schools themselves to allocate the SNAs as they see fit to individual children. The NCSE takes a number of criteria into account when assessing whether a new SNA is required.

I had a look at Cork in general to examine the success rate of the exceptional review process. I am not sure if the schools to which the Deputy referred applied. This year, there were 195 applications from 164 schools in Cork. He specifically mentioned primary schools. Some 72 of them received an increase totalling 42.86 SNA posts. Some 15 post-primary schools received a total of 10.75 SNAs. There was an increase for 87 schools in Cork. The NCSE does assess the individual requirements of schools, as per their school profile.

It is also important to note that a mainstream class no longer requires a diagnosis for a child to access an SNA. That saves the family having to go to the expense, trouble, and inconvenience of trying to get a professional report, as that is no longer required. SNAs are freely available for mainstream classes.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I genuinely appreciate the efforts that are being made. I do not disregard the figure of in excess of 19,000 SNAs that are in circulation. That is a large increase, and we must acknowledge it. At the same time, in many instances, the increase in SNA allocations is not being reflected on the ground. In the cases I outlined, many of the schools have applied to the NCSE and appealed decisions. In some instances, they may have received a minor increase in their SNA allocation. In one case, a school received an increased SNA allocation of 0.87, but it goes nowhere near addressing its needs.

I will return to an example I gave where there are two children in a junior class and two children in a senior class, all of them with significant needs, and the school received an SNA allocation of 0.5.

10 o’clock

In this instance, even the SENO recommended an increase to an allocation of one but the NCSE turned it down. I am trying to highlight the disconnect between the NCSE and schools, principals and staff, regarding how things are operating on the ground. It is impossible to expect the NCSE, or anyone, to be fully aware of the day-to-day running of a school and the different incidents that may evolve or happen during the course of a day but it is clear to me that the NCSE is not aware at all of what is happening on the ground and what these principals and teachers, in particular, have to deal with and cope with.

I am asking for a little more discretion, especially when it comes to a very well thought-out appeal. I also ask the Minister of State to look at the individual cases of the schools I mentioned, namely, Dreeny National School, Caheragh National School, Ballydehob National School, and St. Joseph's National School, Skibbereen. I appreciate there is a separation between her and the NCSE, but they make very strong cases for extra SNA allocation.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for outlining his concerns regarding these schools. It is my role as Minister of State with responsibility for special education to ensure that I hold the NCSE to account. It receives €20 million from the Department every year and employs its SENOs to liaise on the ground with schools, families and parents to ensure sufficient resources are available to each school. I can bring this matter to the attention of the NCSE. I am not aware if it has recently inspected these schools. The Deputy may wish to consider requesting the NCSE, via the schools, to inspect them. I often visit mainstream schools, special schools and special classes. When we are talking about hoists and mechanisms like that, visits are a very real, tangible and practical way for SENOs to see what is needed as opposed to seeing it in an academic way on paper. If there have not been NCSE inspections, that would be a good thing to look at.

The role of the SNA is critical when we talk about special education. It is often the only way a child with additional needs can survive in school at all. Most children would not be in position to do so, if it were not for the SNA. Training is now being provided through a new national SNA programme at University College Dublin. We want to make sure that the SNAs that are in place are equipped and have continuous professional development in order to be able to carry out the tasks the school wishes them to. It is at the discretion of schools to use SNAs as they see fit.