Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I was not aware of the details of this matter before now but it is clear from Senator John Paul Phelan's contribution that he is sincere and that his objective is to ensure that something like this does not happen again. I will outline the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding the matter of resource teaching support for the pupil in question.

More than 5,000 applications for special education resources, including one for the pupil in question, were received in the Department of Education and Science between 15 February 2003 and 31 August 2003. Approximately 1,000 of these applications, which were in respect of new pupils who would be beginning school in September 2003, were prioritised and responded to before or soon after the commencement of the school year in September 2003.

Unfortunately, due to the large numbers of applications that were received, the application for the pupil referred to by the Senator, which should have been dealt with as a priority as the child in question was beginning school in September 2003, was not prioritised in the manner outlined. The application submitted by the school for resources to meet this pupil's needs was received in the Department before the deadline of 31 August 2003. This application should have been processed as part of the new entrant batch received in advance of September 2003 and should have been given priority.

However, the application was not seen by the National Educational Psychological Service until November 2003. It recommended 2.5 hours resource teaching per week for the pupil. At that stage a response should have issued to the school sanctioning the 2.5 hours for the pupil. Unfortunately, this did not occur due to the large number of applications that were being dealt with by the Department of Education and Science at that time.

At this stage and having considered the circumstances involved in this case, the Department agreed in March of this year to sanction 2.5 hours resource teaching support for the pupil. Furthermore, due to the long delay in sanction, the Department has also agreed to increase this to five hours per week resource teaching support to the end of the current school year. These additional hours were sanctioned in March with immediate effect.

The Minister for Education and Science has announced the introduction of a revised general allocation system in September of this year and the school will be advised of its allocation under the new system in the near future. This allocation will enable the school attended by the pupil in question to provide for her special educational needs on an ongoing basis. Part of the reasoning behind introducing a general allocation system of resource teaching allocation for children with high incidence special educational needs is to ensure that the type of situation that arose in this case cannot arise again in the future as schools will be automatically resourced to provide for the special educational needs of such children without the necessity of submitting applications with supporting psychological assessments to the Department for consideration.

Senator John Paul Phelan asked why the principal was contacted the day before the question was answered. I do not know the answer but I will try to establish it. He also inquired why the Department denied all knowledge of this matter and why the file was only discovered following a freedom of information request. All I can say is that I am quite sure no official in the Department decided this file would not be processed. It was one of 5,000 files, 1,000 of which were prioritised. It is unfortunate that this happened. The Department has clearly stated that when the file was sent to the NEPS the decision regarding the 2.5 resource teaching hours was approved but, unfortunately, it only kicked in later that year. In March of this year it was increased to five hours. I hope that has compensated in some way for the delay in the processing of this case.

From my knowledge of the system as a public representative and of the officials who work in that area who are under a great deal of pressure, they give a good service. The Senator can take it from me that there is nothing in this matter that is in any way sinister or intentional. The fact that he raised the issue resulted in the file being discovered. We are where we are and we cannot turn back the clock. I hope the additional 2.5 resource teaching hours since March to the end of this year will compensate in some small way.