Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The matter I raise relates to education which is not his strongest suit. Nevertheless, it is a straightforward issue on which I hope he will engage with me. I recently visited the Catherine McAuley school in Limerick. It has 175 pupils with special needs, all of whom have been assessed as having a mild learning disability.

The average intelligence quotient is 100. In most of the rest of Europe, children with an IQ of between 70 and 80 are considered to have a mild disability. Those with an IQ under 70 are considered to have moderate disability which is much more significant. Astonishingly, as a result of a decision taken here to protect resources, children with an IQ of between 50 and 70 are regarded as having only mild disability.

I cite these statistics to provide some context. This school has 175 of those pupils. The purpose of raising this matter is not to seek a new school because it has a fine design placed in a good location with a superb staff, an enthusiastic principal and a very supportive local community. It is an impressive school where much good work is done.

While the school is a special primary school, two thirds of the pupils are of post-primary school age. Most local post-primary schools teach the usual range of subjects in addition to subjects such as art, physical education, home economics and woodwork, which are crucial for children at second level. This school is allowed, under certain conditions, to appoint teaches who will deal with art, physical education, economics and woodwork, and it has good rooms to cater for this. For example, it has an extraordinary computer room which is of great importance to children with special needs. It also has a cookery room and other rooms to cater for the subjects I mentioned.

However, the school is only allowed to make part-time as opposed to permanent teacher appointments in these subjects. This means that the teachers recruited and appointed are not employed full-time. Sometimes the school can be fortunate in being able to appoint a teacher who is only interested in working part-time, but generally, it appoints good teachers who will only stay in the school until such time as he or she gets a full-time permanent job elsewhere. While such teachers cannot be blamed for following their career requirements, this situation creates a certain instability in the school. This problem applies to all special schools in the country.

I ask the Minister to ensure that every special school should be entitled to appoint a certain quota of specialist teachers on a permanent basis or to a panel serving a number of schools. This will create stability as the teachers will build up a relationship with the school, the pupils, the principal and other staff. This is very important.

Other issues include the fact that pupils can only stay in such schools until the age of 18 years whereas it is 19 years in the case of other schools. This can create difficulty for children with special needs who might be sitting State examinations which other children would have sat at an earlier age. I am not sure if that situation has arisen but it is a cause of concern.

We all know these post-primary pupils require the support of specialist teachers. The teachers cannot be employed permanently with the result that the pupils deal continually with a changing group of part-time teachers, who are usually recruited through the local VEC. I understand that in a small number of schools, such teachers are appointed on a more permanent basis. That is the way to address this matter and I ask the Minister to respond positively.