Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

The raising of the issue of special needs assistants is opportune. As Senator Ulick Burke said, it has only been a few weeks since the Minister for Education and Science made promises to this House in the area of special needs and resource teaching. I have predicted previously that this will be an important issue in the near future as people are now planning for September. Many young children with dyslexia and mild learning difficulties will need special tuition of 2.5 hours per week, which was the position in the past, but this service will be taken from them. I call on the Minister not to address this House but to say that she has concluded her review and will change direction on this, otherwise it will be detrimental to the Department of Education and Science in the future.