John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. She has given a very good account of herself in her contribution. I do not doubt for one moment her sincerity and her ability. I take my hat off to her as being the outstanding holder of her office since 1997 but in light of her predecessors this may not sound like a glowing tribute. She brings a level of knowledge and sincerity to her office. It is remarkable that she has managed not to offend and upset the key stakeholders in the education process, when a couple of her predecessors managed to offend everybody involved in education.

I welcome most of her remarks but I support the motion tabled by my Independent colleagues. I wish to state a number of areas in which my views differ from those of the Minister. She referred to educational disadvantage as being an urban phenomenon. I represent a constituency with large urban and rural areas, comprising significant towns as well as large rural parts of counties Kilkenny and Carlow. I have some knowledge of this city and of other urban areas. The most extreme forms of isolation, poverty and disadvantage, are to be found in rural Ireland. The Minister referred to Tallaght and other places with concentrations of disadvantage but there is nothing that compares with what exists in some parts of rural Ireland where people still live in very bad circumstances. There are children in County Leitrim — to which the Minister referred — who are significantly disadvantaged with difficult backgrounds. There may not be a concentration of numbers of such children in rural areas but the Minister was wrong in her assessment.

I agree with the Minister that there have been significant achievements in the provision of new schools and new school buildings under the schools building programme. However, I wish to draw the Minister's attention to a number of glaring examples of the lack of provision of new facilities for schools. She referred to special schools and special education. This is a hobby-horse of mine and it also ties in with the schools building programme.

I have raised the matter of the school of the Holy Spirit in Kilkenny city on umpteen occasions in this House. It caters for children with special educational needs, primarily those with autism. A site has been identified but they have no school building. I was approached in recent weeks by two sets of parents whose children will be finishing the primary school curriculum this year. Due to the fact that the school building is prefabricated and occupies land which was originally part of the county veterinary officer's premises, some of these parents will be forced to leave the workforce to care for children who will be finished in primary school. This is a parochial example but it applies across the country.

Much emphasis has been placed on special education. I compliment the Minister for allocating funding to special education. I have been asking for a debate on the subject in this House since the summer recess. The National Educational Psychological Service is available to only 17% of students in County Kilkenny and 30% in County Carlow but the coverage is 100% in County Kerry. This inconsistency does not lead me to have any faith in the Government's plans for children with special educational needs when the children cannot even have their needs assessed by NEPS.

I know of a case in County Kilkenny some years ago involving a girl who was unable to speak and who required psychological assessment. The Department thwarted the child, her school principal and the board of management at every opportunity. She was allowed access to NEPS as a result of the matter being raised on the Adjournment of the House. The Government maintains the special educational needs situation has been resolved.

Significant numbers of teachers have been taken on for special educational needs but there is still a problem regarding NEPS. The Minister should do more in that area. I am not challenging the fact that a high level of resources is being provided because it is obvious. The figures for resources speak for themselves. It is a fact, however, that in the programme for Government, the Administration committed itself to a 20:1 pupil-teacher ratio for children under nine years of age. As Senator Minihan pointed out, the current ratio is 24:1, so the Government has failed to honour its promised commitment. The situation has changed and I accept the Government must respond to events as they occur. It is clear, however, from the first line of the motion that the Government has singularly failed with regard to that matter.

I am not an expert in mathematics, although I must admit that in what seems like the dim and distant past, I was a secondary school mathematics teacher. It is not a job that I want to go back to in a hurry but the people of Carlow-Kilkenny will decide that.