Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

Without mentioning the name of the child involved, I raise this matter in light of an individual case at Ballyheerin national school, County Donegal, of which details have been supplied. This child has been receiving one-to-one support through the facilitation of a resource teacher on an ongoing basis. The work that has been achieved to date, according to his parents and the school principal, can be summed up by stating that the child has been blossoming due to the help or facilitation that has been offered.

I emphasise that this is not a severe case as the child has only a moderate learning difficulty. However, if he is making progress as is the case, a point echoed by his parents and the school principal and staff, we should study this closely. If the child does not get a continuation of sustained learning resource support, what will happen down the line? Is it not an obligation on us, as legislators, and officials within the Department of Education and Science to continue with support if it is working? It is working, it is not broken, so why are we trying to change it?

That is in regard to the individual. The bigger issue concerns the whole ethos behind clustering. I would agree with the idea of clustering, namely, the grouping of small rural primary schools and the appointment of good, dedicated resource teachers to work in them. There is a cluster in the region in question, made up of Doaghbeg, Cashel, Croaghross, Drumfad and Tamney national schools, and including Ballyheerin national school. The combination of those rural primary schools work together for the overall betterment of students with special learning difficulties. Should we not be working extremely hard to try to facilitate the students in these schools?

To refer to the ethical dimension, the consequence of this one child losing 3.5 hours of resource teaching means that the teacher who has worked in a dedicated manner in all of these schools will, unfortunately, lose his job. It is a double edged sword. On the one hand, a student is losing out and, on the other, the rural area is losing a dedicated support teacher. I am not saying there is anything sinister in this. However, I would ask an obvious question on the grounds that in a similar rural area across Lough Swilly, there is a similar problem with clustering. The deficit at a school in that area — ScoilChoilmcille, Malin, school roll No. 146310 — is perhaps one hour, but this will possibly result in the loss of another dedicated, professional and highly motivated teacher.

Although I can assume the content of the Minister's reply, a bigger issue is at stake. We are introducing clustering as a way to ensure that disadvantaged rural schools, many in CLÁR areas, are facilitated in terms of special needs supports while, on the other hand, the reduction of a few hours means that the schools involved do not get the dedicated core staff required to carry out special needs teaching. It must be asked whether children with moderate learning difficulty are being discriminated against in terms of the special learning support they require. Are they discriminated against as a result of budgeting or the Department's ability to fund a special needs teacher?

It is a complicated issue and I have no evidence on it. However, to consider the issue head-on, one would wonder whether it is a numbers game, a financial game or a sinister attempt to keep hours down so rural areas will be deprived of special needs support. I have given two examples. I ask the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, to re-examine the total roll number at Ballyheerin national school, which was supplied with notice of the Adjournment matter, and the case at Malin, which I do not want to discuss at length as I do not have as much knowledge on it as on the case at Ballyheerin.