Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Senator Fidelma Healy Eames. The decision by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, to destroy the futures of hundreds of the most vulnerable children in the country and the toil and effort of parents, teachers and psychologists flies in the face of logic and reason. I do not for one moment argue against the need for savings in education. However, the approach taken must be rational and based on sound educational principles and outcomes rather than on purely economic principles.

The projected savings of this scheme amount to little more than €6 million. Is the Minister suggesting he cannot find such savings in other value for money initiatives, rather than targeting the most vulnerable? Let us consider this rationally. The projected savings from the culling of special needs classes is negligible in the overall context of the €2 billion savings required by the Exchequer. The decision makes little or no sense in the context of the budgetary policy and framework. Does the decision make sense in the context of educational policy and the initiatives of the Department in the past ten to 15 years? The answer is "No". What makes these cuts especially tragic and disdainful is that they have been introduced by a Minister with an education background.

The Minister made great play last week of the fact that many of the classes in affected schools did not have nine pupils. That may be the case, but in many parts of Ireland, including County Cork and Cork city, there are schools with pupils on waiting lists for an assessment of current functioning and an assessment of current needs and without a statement of need forthcoming. The Government is doing a disservice to a marginalised, hidden and silent group.

If the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, were at full complement, these assessments could have been conducted, pupils' needs could have been identified and classes could have been saved. It is disgraceful and shameful that after 12 years, NEPS still does not have a full complement of staff. Why is this the case?

Let us examine more closely the composition of these classes. Pupils with a mild intellectual disability in full-time special needs schools or special classes with mainstream schools tend by and large to come from disadvantaged areas. This situation is related to the economic disadvantages associated with those on a lower than average income, with parents less likely to have reached third level and with less disposable income to spend on additional education supports. In effect, special classes have been a compensation for economic disadvantage and have attempted to level the playing field. The existence of special classes has resulted in fewer pupils being forced to attend full-time special schools. Such pupils have been able to remain within their communities with their brothers, sisters and friends. The classes have contributed significantly to educational improvement. A potential consequence of this decision is that more of these pupils will fail, fall into educational disadvantage, experience difficulty in mainstream classes and will be forced to attend full-time schools. This will result in an increased economic and social cost to pupils, their families and society.

The Minister stated that we do not understand what he was trying to do, that his efforts were in the interests of pupils and that they would now be integrated with non-disabled peers in the classroom. I am afraid the Minister does not understand what has taken place in these classes. Like Pontius Pilate he has washed his hands of these children and abandoned them into classrooms with increasing sizes. There is a complexity of issues never before seen in the educational system. The Minister does not realise that almost all of these classes operated on a system of partial withdrawal and supported inclusion. I state this as a teacher. We are forcing children to become lost in the educational system. Is that to be the epithet of this Minister? Will he refer to the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 in his reply?