David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

It was announced yesterday that resource teaching time for children with learning difficulties is being reduced by 15 minutes per week, or 5%. This is on top of the 10% cutback from last year, which means each child with a special need will lose 45 minutes of learning support. I have spoken to many teachers in Waterford over the last few months and years on this issue, and they are very concerned that children with special needs are not getting the attention, care and support they need.

We can all have differences of opinion on the cuts being put in place by this Government, but surely the State should be able to shield children with special needs from cuts. Surely they should be saved from the kind of cuts to which everybody else is being subjected. If we cannot shield children with special needs, then I believe we are failing as a State. To add insult to injury, this is part of the troika arrangement which capped the number of learning support and special needs teachers at 9,950. So when the IMF comes into town and tells us that we are meeting all of its targets, it is also referring to these targets where we are putting caps on the number of learning support teachers and making sure that children with special needs are not getting the support they need.

The savings that are to be made by this decision are quite small. Surely the money could be found elsewhere and we should be able to protect special needs. The Minister said that he was quite satisfied that this was a very small reduction, but he has taken that reduction in isolation, because we have to look at the reduction last year and the year before, and the cumulative effect that these reductions are having on some of the most vulnerable children in this State. It is time to have a real debate in this House about special educational needs, the resources available and the cutbacks that are having an impact on the most vulnerable in our schools.