Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I am sure Senators will join me in wishing for the best in the talks in Northern Ireland. It is a tense and difficult situation but we all hope the efforts will be successful. No one ever said power sharing would be easy but there is no way back for Northern Ireland to its bloody and violent past. We all want to see progress being made in today's critical talks.

There have been reports that hundreds of special needs assistants will finish work this Friday, leaving classrooms without help. The children who need them will no longer have them. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Education and Science appear in the House to outline how he intends to ensure these children will survive in mainstream schools and how we will continue a policy that provides for their inclusion in classrooms if they do not have available to them, as the majority do, special needs assistants. There is a gatekeeper-type situation where resources are not being given to young children who need the services in question if they are to survive in mainstream schools. We need clarity on the policy being followed. Senator Boyle may have something to say on the matter, as we were told after the renegotiation of the programme for Government that there would be a rowing back on the education cuts and that there would be protection of vulnerable children. Two events will occur this week. First, special needs assistants will be withdrawn from classrooms in which they are badly needed. Second, substitute panels of teachers in disadvantaged areas will be done away with. Once again school principals will be put under considerable pressure if substitutes are not available to replace missing teachers. In my area of Clondalkin, for example, where this system was in place six teachers were looking after 12 schools. The substitute panels have been done away with. These are education cuts. I do not know what else one could call them. I would like the Minister to attend the House to explain how he will protect these children's futures if they do not have the supports they require in the classroom.