Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. I am delighted the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills with responsibility for special educational needs, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, has come to the House to deal with this motion because often when we table Commencement notices, it is not possible for the Ministers with specific responsibility to come to the House to deal with them. It is a testament to the importance of this issue that the Minister of State is here today.

As a former school principal and teacher for many years she will be aware that this and previous Governments have invested substantially in providing supports for people with disabilities to attend mainstream secondary school. When I was in secondary school in the mid-1980s a visiting teacher came to me twice a year. There were no resource teachers or special needs assistants. I went to an integrated school and had to make do with what was there and do my very best. As they do today, teachers then went the extra mile to ensure that as much equality as possible was achieved. We have moved on, thankfully, and have achieved quite a lot. There is, however, frequent criticism of the amount of resources pumped into equality and disability services to ensure people with disabilities have adequate resources. The reality is there will never be enough but we have come a long way as a country since the mid-1980s. It is a credit to all successive Ministers for education that in spite of the difficult economic environment in which we found ourselves, we were able to keep a reasonable service and there are 10,000 or 11,000 special needs assistants and resource teachers in schools now.

While we provide many resources, young people sometimes may need extra resources in first and second year. As they become more accustomed to school, however, and create their own ways to overcome difficulty, as equipment is provided and so forth, they may not require as many hours as they did when they started secondary school. Sometimes a student may have hours they may not need. They could be channelled in a different way. A report in 2014 suggested an alternative model. The Government is committed to introducing that model in September 2018 or 2019 and the Minister of State will clarify that in her response today. It is only right and fair that schools should be told when and how it will happen and what the methodology and mechanics will be for assessing the need and providing the resources.Many teachers, principals and school administrators are happy that the report will be implemented and that there will be a new way of thinking in the allocation and provision of special needs assistants and resource hours and so forth. However, the time has come for schools to be told when, where, how and what the mechanisms will be in order that they can plan their budgets, human resources, academic calendars and approach. It is rather difficult to deal in a vacuum not knowing any of this information. I look forward to hearing the response of the Minister of State.