Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I welcome the decision to have a proper debate on the Disability Bill because many of us have been getting telephone calls on this issue. We are all aware of the major march that will take place tomorrow to highlight how dissatisfied many of the disability organisations are about the Bill.

I ask the Leader once more to speak to the Minister for Education and Science about special needs education provision at primary level. The schools have been notified of their allocation of resource teachers and there is deep unhappiness that many children will not receive two and a half hours special needs tuition. In many rural schools, a child in the system with dyslexia will continue to get two and a half hours tuition while another child starting out will not. Schools in rural areas with fewer than 100 pupils will not benefit from the new weighting system.

The Minister will get representations from Oireachtas Members from the west Limerick area on this issue because we are aware of the concerns that have been expressed. West Limerick is no different from other rural areas in terms of schools. I ask the Leader to speak to the Minister about this. It must be addressed on a needs basis; if there is a needs requirement, it must be responded to accordingly. If we do not respond, the implications of the nursing home charges could be faced again in the future because primary school children are being deprived of vital education in their formative years. It is an important issue that I wish to see addressed.