Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am speaking as someone who worked for seven years with a special needs children's charity as a paid staff member. For the 20 years prior to that, I worked for the charity as a volunteer. I also speak on behalf of a Minister who would not engage in any activity that would compromise or damage the chances of any child, particularly one with special needs, of achieving the very best in life or of reaching the pinnacle of his or her talents.

All Government decisions are being made in a difficult context. We inherited an economic disaster, one which the Financial Times recently described as "the longest and deepest recession ever experienced by any OECD country". We have inherited, as described by Senator D'Arcy, a disaster of wanton profligacy. A recent report produced not long after the election concluded that despite the repeated advice of the Department of Finance, in particular at election time, previous Governments decided that whatever spending was required to placate and encourage an electorate to support that Government would be spent.

We inherited that legacy, aptly described by my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, in response to a debate on education in the Dáil last week as follows:

[W]e do not live in a world in which you [Deputy Barrett] would like to live but in one where this Republic has lost its economic sovereignty. We have lost control of our cheque book. Every fortnight the governor of the Central Bank must report to Frankfurt to state that our fortnightly returns, in terms of revenue and costs reductions, are meeting targets. Otherwise, the money that pays the Deputy's and my salaries, and those of everybody else who works in this building, will not come out of the ATM. That is where we are. Michael Collins the first Minister for Finance of this State had more room to manoeuvre than his successor as Minister, Deputy Noonan, has today.

The Minister went on to say that we have lost our economic sovereignty. It is a reality he does not like and one I do not like. It is not productive at this point in time to go into the history of how we have arrived in this place but the challenge and the ambition of this Government is to regain our economic sovereignty as quickly as possible. I thank all Senators who contributed to the debate, a number of whom have specialist knowledge and experience in this area and all of whom spoke with much passion for what is a difficult subject to discuss.

The allocation of teaching resources to schools for the coming school year takes place within the framework of the programme for national recovery and the EU-IMF programme of support for Ireland. We would not be engaging in any process that might be even seen to compromise the educational rights of our special needs children unless we had explored every other option available to us, not alone within the Department of Education and Skills but across all Departments. The reality is that we cannot breach the fixed ceiling on teacher numbers within our schools. The recovery plan provides for a net reduction in teacher numbers in 2011, notwithstanding the need to provide additional posts to meet demographics.

The number of students remaining at school to complete their second level education is at its highest ever, which is a good thing and something of which we should be proud. However, accommodating the increased number of students poses a challenge. We have had to reduce the number of language support teachers to remain within the fixed ceiling on teacher numbers. That is the reality.

I want to emphasise once again that significant support continues to be provided to schools by way of language support resources. This teaching support is provided on a clear and structured basis and resources are deployed on the basis of pupils' language proficiency. The 1,400 language support posts are in addition to mainstream classroom teachers and are available to address the specific learning needs of the children requiring language support. The changing pattern of immigration at national level and increased levels of proficiency should result in a reduced level of demand for language support in the coming years.

Senator Ó Domhnaill stated earlier that the 90% reduction in resource hours would disproportionately affect small rural schools. I do not know how he arrived at that conclusion. It is my understanding that the 90% reduction applies equally across the school population, irrespective of school size or the number of pupils therein. In regard to language support teachers, it is imperative that all teachers realise they have a genuine role in supporting migrant children in gaining English language proficiency. This is not the sole remit of the language support teacher but is the responsibility of all teachers, the majority of whom are already doing so or willing to do so. Schools also have flexibility in regard to how they deploy their language support teachers to meet the needs of pupils that require language support.

I reiterate that there has been no reduction in the overall number of resource teaching posts. The number of resource teachers to be allocated for this year has increased by 350 to a total of 9,950. There will, therefore, be more resource teachers than last year and there has not been a cut in resource teacher numbers. This is a case of demand for support increasing as opposed to a reduction in actual number of posts. The fact that demand for resource teaching is increasing and that the rate of applications has potential to cause a breach of teacher numbers under the ECF means that the Department had to consider and adjust the allocation process. That is the reality. Some 90% of the identified resource teaching allocations are now being made to schools to provide them with the majority of their allocation while also preserving enough capacity to deal with later applications and ensure the Department can remain within its ECF obligations. The proposal ensures all schools will be treated the same. If the level of demand turns out to be less than expected, the initial 90% allocation may be revisited and possibly increased.

The reality now being imposed by the ECF leaves no option but to adjust the special needs resource allocation process in the most equitable way possible. By allocating 90% of valid applications at this point we are making contingency for future allocations and ensuring the resources are being allocated as fairly as possible across the school system. All areas of Government will have to manage on reduced resources. The challenge will be to ensure the resources are being provided and are used to maximum effect to achieve the best possible outcome for all pupils in our schools.