Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

We have heard there has been significant spending on education. However, with regard to the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, we were supposed to have a full service as a result of the legislation dealing with education for those with special needs, but we have had no improvement in the service. We are back to a situation where parents must get their children privately assessed. Those assessments are often not accepted by the Department of Education and Science. This situation continues 12 months after the legislation, despite the fanfare with regard to the improvements that would follow its introduction.

There are groups assembling in Dublin tonight to challenge the commitment of the Government and its ability to bring in a proper Disability Bill. We know what happened with the previous Bill. In the area of special needs nothing has changed. Delays are the same or worse than heretofore despite the commitments given to the various representative groups. Concerned parents of children with special needs are once more forgotten. The legislation goes through and the people are forgotten. The attitude is let it work its way through and it will find its depth. We provide the legislation and, supposedly, provide the funding, but it is not manifest on the ground.

Another area of concern is the promise regarding school attendance officers. Some 300 were promised, but less than 100 have been appointed, the majority of whom are in Dublin. What about the rest of the country? These officers are not on the ground and it seems likely they will not be in the foreseeable future. What happened to that promise? I would like to hear the Minister of State's response.

We have been told the pupil-teacher ratio is now 17:1. However, if one goes to any area in the country, one will find people with special needs in classes of 30 or more. How can the Minister of State say we have such an average class size when we know there are people with special needs in classes of 30 or more? One does not need to travel far from this House to find such a situation, yet the Government applauds itself on its great achievement. We could go on.

Senator Fitzgerald said the Government had spent 9% more in the area of health. What has it to show for it? Accident and emergency units are becoming areas to be avoided, regardless of the urgent need for treatment. Some people now stay home and suffer rather than attend an accident and emergency unit, because if they attend they suffer twice as much by having to wait. I attended the accident and emergency unit in University College Hospital, Galway, last December. I went at 12 noon but left at 3 p.m. when the person with me decided we had had enough and should go home. An old aged pensioner from Ballindine, County Mayo, was there with a dislocated shoulder. He had been there from 11 a.m., yet nobody had come near him by 1 p.m. He telephoned his relations to come and collect him and left the accident and emergency unit with his shoulder still dislocated to return to Mayo. He had not had a morsel to eat or a drink in the intervening period. If the Minister of State is happy to preside over such situations and thinks this Government is doing a good job, he should reflect again. That is the reality of life for many in this country who are trying to access health services.

The Tánaiste recently went on a fact-finding mission to the west. Many people would have thought that at a time of great resources a new Minister would give some indication of her commitment to improved resources and facilities at ground level. However, the Minister said she was on a fact-finding mission and would not be speaking to people. She created enemies in two institutions she visited in Galway. She walked through the accident and emergency unit in University College Hospital without acknowledging the nursing staff who work at the coalface. She turned on her heel and walked off. She also visited St. Brendan's Hospital in Loughrea. She went into one ward, turned on her heel and walked out. All she did was take part in a photo call in the company of a Deputy and a recently elected local councillor. That was grand, but the reality is——