Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

It certainly is not and I would be happy to go through the numbers with Senator Burke and demonstrate that the seats lost in certain geographical areas had nothing to do with health. That is another day's work however.

I welcome the weighted system for the delivery of resource teachers, which is being introduced by the Department of Education and Science. It is important to recognise that the emphasis on the role of the principal is being restored in allowing a certain amount of teaching capacity for that role and control of the allocation of resources. This is an improvement on the present system, which has us all driven around the bend, whereby detailed applications must be submitted to the special education unit in Athlone to undergo a complex processing procedure. This will particularly benefit those children with a less severe disability or special educational need, which can be easily diagnosed by teachers. The necessary resources in these cases can now be applied immediately without the necessity for primary, secondary and tertiary assessment and so on, which was logjamming the Department of Education and Science. I look forward to the implementation of this new system in September.

I have already discussed the matter of special needs assistants with the Minister of State and there is an issue here regarding the cap on numbers. A number of children will continue to require the services of classroom assistants as it is the only way they can successfully function within a mainstream school environment. We must ensure that the needs of such children are met while also ensuring that children without special needs are not unduly hindered because of potential unruly behaviour, for example. This issue must be resolved, potentially by means of a similar weighted system to provide teachers with the capability to deliver the necessary resources. The current situation whereby there is a need for a student to have an individual classroom assistant is unnecessary. Some students seem to believe they have ownership of particular assistants and this has caused some difficulties. There is a capacity for sharing in this area in a similar manner to the sharing of the resource in schools.

I compliment the Department of Education and Science on the tremendous strides that have been made and recognise that this Bill represents the legislative framework for the future provision and enhancement of special educational needs services. There has been much debate in this House about the Government's commitment to providing the necessary funding and funding will always be an issue irrespective of which party is in power and how resources are disbursed. This Government has demonstrated its commitment in terms of the allocation of extra teachers, a crucial measure which represents an excellent way to begin the implementation of this legislation. People on this side of the House would never claim that the problem is entirely resolved through the introduction of this Bill——