Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This matter relates to a request for a review of circular 09/04 issued by the Minister and the Department of Education and Science last June. The date on which this circular was issued was inappropriate as the school year had come to an end. The circular's contents, dealing with the allocation of special educational teachers to primary schools, has serious significance for many schools throughout the country. The allocation of special educational needs teachers under the new arrangements is one teacher to 140 pupils in an all boys' school, one teacher to 150 pupils in mixed co-educational schools and one teacher to 200 pupils in all girls' school.

We are told all children are equal and should be treated as such. This directive discriminates seriously against an all girls' school. There is a bias in it. There is no scientific basis on which the Minister or the Department can draw for this. All that has been done to date in this area was the carrying out of a special education census in 2003. If the decision is based on that census, it was unscientific. There is no justification for discriminating against all girls' schools as a result of it.

We can all agree that a large majority of pupils in receipt of special education needs support are boys. I am not aware of a scientific study that would allow for the discrimination illustrated in the figures to which I referred. Principals of all girls' schools and their boards of managements have expressed concern at this differential, for which there is no justifiable basis.

That more boys than girls were in receipt of special educational needs assistance, according to the special education census, is not a justifiable basis for a decision to allocate a special needs teacher to any school. There is a gender imbalance in this decision. If a decision on this basis is enforced, all girls' schools irrespective of their needs, which in a particular year may be greater than the needs of all boys' schools, will be discriminated against. Children who at present warrant special treatment will be deprived of it from September 2005.

The only course open to parents, who believe their children are in need, is to revert to the courts and challenge the decision under the Equality Authority. We heard the former Minister say that we want to keep such cases out of the courts.

The needs of children in any school should be the primary criterion when allocating special education teachers. It is fundamentally unjust for the allocation of such teachers to be connected to the gender of a child. The newly proposed system, if enforced, is unfair and unjust and cannot be upheld in those schools.

I refer to the Presentation primary school in Tuam. It currently has five special needs assistants. That school is short a resource teacher and it applied to the Department for the appointment of such a teacher in June last year at which time it also applied for the appointment of an RTT, but it has not received an acknowledgement by the Department. Given that the Minister recently said she wants to appoint all the special needs assistants required throughout the country, how has the Department failed to respond to requests made a year and a half ago for special resources in those areas? This school in Tuam is not designated as disadvantaged. It beggars belief that the Minister would stand over discrimination and bias of this kind.

I ask that this matter be reviewed immediately. We are led to believe that a review is currently taking place in the Department and visits are being made to schools to ascertain special educational needs, but it seems to ignore discrimination in this area in certain schools.