Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for selecting this matter and I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to deal with it.

St. Colman's national school, Corofin, Cummer, Tuam, County Galway, has an enrolment of 190 children and has been clustered for many years with four other national schools for learning support services. The current learning support teacher is based in Belclare national school and serves Annagh boys' school, Annagh girls' school, Belclare national school, Sylaune national school and St. Colman's national school. She has a full caseload of 30 pupils, 11 of whom are in St. Colman's national school. She has no time slot to provide for other children and there are at least another ten eligible pupils, with a recent child coming in at the seventh percentile on the Drumcondra reading test. Sadly, the board of management and the principal must tell parents that they cannot currently provide any learning support for that child and the ten other children. It is not acceptable in this day and age to say to the parents of ten children that their children cannot be provided with learning support services. Where is the commitment to access and equity in education?

These people made a conscious decision last autumn to concentrate their resources on the lower classes so that early intervention could be provided for pupils in the senior infants and second classes. This is something the Minister for Education and Science would deny vehemently if he was here. All that can be done now is to intervene at the infant stage and first classes. Half the school enrolments in these schools must go without access to learning support. I do not know what the Minister of State will say today, but there are eligible pupils in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth classes who are not being catered for and are being denied their entitlement.

The learning support teacher's caseload is stretched to the limit. When one considers that there is a 19 mile distance between the two furthest schools the teacher is trying to serve, it must become apparent to the Minister of State that it is an impossible situation which cannot be allowed to continue. The timetable has been structured to eliminate as much travel as possible. Corofin is a growing satellite suburb of Galway city with upwards of 70 houses currently under construction. The school is being expanded this summer to cater for increasing needs. It is ironic that it cannot provide the service the children need.

The board of management made an application to the Department of Education and Science for a full-time learning support teacher in the school. We do not know what has happened, but the Department has not even been courteous enough to reply. I do not know what is wrong because there has been no reply to this request. The local inspector is fully aware of the situation. I cannot understand why the Department of Education and Science will not reply to this request. Perhaps the Minister and his officials are using their time to provide educational packs for Fianna Fáil candidates.

The board of management, teachers and parents are at their wits' end trying to do their best in the circumstances and they are not being provided with the backup services by the Department, which will not even acknowledge them. I ask the Minister of State to indicate that he will not continue to deny these children their entitlements. They have established needs, which are already certified on assessment. Why, therefore, must they go without when other children have access to a similar service? It is unbelievable that it is just the infants and lower classes who have access to the service. I ask the Minister of State to indicate why the Government has not had the courtesy to reply to the request of the board of management and the principal, indicating the Department's intentions. Despite all the endeavours and statements made to the effect that the Government is providing such services on a global scale throughout the country, this is one instance which is seriously out of step with the remainder of the country.