John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy Haughey, to the House. The issue I raise on the Adjournment concerns special needs in education. Recently, I was presented with a case in County Kilkenny involving a child with Down's syndrome who attends her local national school. Following much agitation by her parents, she has secured 2.5 resource hours of additional teaching from the 18-hour allocation granted to the school as a whole. I am led to believe that from next year onwards, the child in question will receive only 30 to 60 minutes resource teaching out of the school's overall resource teaching allocation.

I ask the Minister of State to outline the position with regard to the allocation of resource hours. I understand from the case and some work I have undertaken in this regard that, until two or three years ago, children with Down's syndrome were automatically allocated a certain number of hours of resource teaching when they commenced school and that these hours were not subtracted from the school's overall allocation.

The Minister of State will agree that early intervention in the cases of children with special educational needs ensures they do not become a financial burden on the Exchequer. The decision to remove the automatic qualification for resource hours for children with Down's syndrome is a step in the wrong direction. Surely intervention would allow children with this condition to lead much more independent lives as adults. Any cutback in this regard is a retrograde step.

I understand Down's syndrome affects approximately 250 children in the general school system, a very small proportion of the primary school population. Perhaps the Government, in the short period it has left in office, will be in a position to reverse the change in entitlements made several years ago to ensure intervention in the educational development of children with Down's syndrome takes place at the earliest possible date in order that they can live independently in future. I look forward to a positive response from the Minister of State.