Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. The Minister is very welcome. I am sorry for being awkward earlier on the subject of scripts, but everything that the Minister had to say was very interesting and there were points in his speech that I would have liked to have been able to refer to, word for word, but cannot. I would make the point again that it is very useful to have Ministers' scripts. We are listening intently and there are things we would like to pick up on or ask a question about and it is very useful to have the precise words before us.

Most of the public and media attention on this Bill has focused on the role of religion in admissions. Indeed, religion has received a crazy amount of attention when one considers the net effect of the changes being made. There are other very important changes within the Bill which need to be highlighted and properly debated. As the chairperson of a board of management of a small rural primary school, I would argue that the power in this Bill to compel a school to open a special class or classes where the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has identified a need for such provision within an area is not as necessary in the primary sector. I listened very carefully to everything the Minister said in terms of such a power only being used as a last resort, if at all. I also listened very carefully to the limitations to that power as described by the Minister and the conditions attached to its use.

It is generally acknowledged by principals of mainstream schools with special classes that these classes have a positive impact on inclusion within their schools. A number of valid concerns have been raised by school principals, however, regarding the provision of training, the management of challenging behaviour, difficulties accessing external support and an increased workload on principals. Addressing these legitimate concerns would encourage more schools to open special classes willingly and would preferable to ordering the unwilling to do so. This argument was recently put succinctly by an experienced teaching principal who said the following:

I believe our school is a very good example of how pupils with ASD are successfully included holistically in school life. In 31 years of teaching, I believe setting up this unit was my greatest achievement. I am very proud of our school in its entirety and I believe we have all benefited enormously from becoming a school that has an ASD unit. Our school community agrees. However, it created a huge body of work for me that has overwhelmed me more than once. The workload is not sustainable and the personal toll it takes on the principal is, at best, unfair. I believe schools like ours, who agree to open special classes, should be better supported and more schools would subsequently opt in as a result.

The challenge for principals is to manage what are, in effect, two separate schools with very different needs, challenges and expectations under the one roof and to make them gel together to make one successful educational facility. To make this situation even more challenging, our teaching principals engage in these activities while also teaching full time. The role of a teaching principal is a very challenging one. It is one of the most challenging roles in Irish education, and adding the challenge of a special class to the burden of administration borne by all principals, combined with the full-time teaching responsibility of teaching principals, is asking the impossible.

Behaviour management issues, for example, can be more challenging in special classes and principals are regularly called to become involved. This means that teaching principals can be regularly called out of class to become involved in managing behaviour issues. There is a significant amount of management and time spent by principals dealing with professionals who work with pupils in special classes, including special educational needs officers, SENOS, occupational therapists, psychologists, speech therapists, psychiatrists, play therapists and staff of child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS.

Principals are also managing a much larger staff than that illustrated on the official designation from the Department of Education and Skills. All of the extra ancillary staff associated with a special class, including special needs assistants, SNAs and bus escorts, for example, must be managed by the principal. Dealing with appointments, sudden absences, planned leave, replacement staff, Garda vetting and so on for these extra staff all falls to the principal. Managing transport to and from the special class is especially demanding for principals, particularly at the start of the new school year as new routes are being established.

The primary school system has been very open to setting up special classes. It is equally true to say that were adequate resources to be provided, even more schools would be willing to do so. Our teaching principals deserve not only the one principal release day per week for which they are campaigning but also additional supports to manage the challenges posed by a special class. Teaching principals are the unsung heroes of Irish education. They do a wonderful job with grossly inadequate resources. What they need is not a Big Brother telling them what to do but a Big Brother who provides them with the support they need to do their job. There is real enthusiasm and commitment to inclusion among the teaching community in Ireland. We must ensure that we foster that enthusiasm by providing the supports that teachers need and pupils deserve.

I refer to the points made by the Minister around the changes being introduced in terms of admissions and the non-permissibility of religion as a principle for determining priority where school places are in short supply. I welcome the fact that the Minister acknowledged that most Catholic schools are inclusive although he could probably go further and say that all Catholic schools are such unless and until we hear evidence to the contrary. The problem here has always been a shortage of places, as the Minister's words clearly imply. Once there is a shortage of places, the problem is that shortage, and Senator Gallagher expressed this eloquently in the closing part of his speech when he said that not one student is better off as a result of this particular change. I do not object to it, in particular, because I also take on board what the Minister said about the fact that the vast majority of schools are Catholic.

It is clear from what the Minister said that he accepts that parents are entitled to send their children to a school that reflects their own ethos and beliefs. The Minister stressed that entitlement very strongly. We are facing into an era where the Catholic Church needs and wants to be, and in some ways already is, a persuader for greater diversity in our school system in terms of ethos and patronage. We are in a situation where we have to be fair here and acknowledge that schools were funded by the State but established by the sacrifices, in harsher times, of members of faith communities. They did so with a clear understanding that they were not just providing a school but one which was within the framework of their faith and values.

We also have to bear in mind the different and equal aspirations of people who do not share the values of the majority faith or tradition. Are we approaching a crisis here where a new majority will impose its will on a new minority? Should we think creatively and inclusively here? Is it time to start talking about a concordat, for example, where we would acknowledge the new diversity so that both the State and the majority Church would commit to a greater diversity in educational patronage?

Can it also be made very clear and practical in terms of guaranteeing to faith-based schools their right to educate according to their values? Increasingly we see that those values diverge from what is either mandated or, more generally, facilitated or enshrined in the law of the land. Will there be tolerance in terms of allowing schools to educate according to their values where those values differ from the spirit now enshrined in the law of the land, on life and death issues, for example? I hope there will not be the heavy hand that characterised the past, when the shoe was on the other foot, but a new inclusivity and a genuine tolerance and openness to different styles, values and beliefs in education. I wish to raise an issue which has not arisen in my school and which came to mind while listening to the Minister's speech. What happens when parents, arising out of a disciplinary matter, are abusive to the teachers and staff of a school, come in with a heavy-handed approach and behave in a manner and conduct which borders on threatening? I wish to stress that this does not happen in a school with which I am involved. Is the Minister satisfied that there is enough protection for schools in managing that situation so as not to deprive a child of an education while at the same time ensuring a safe and confident environment for teachers who may be somewhat in fear of bullies among parents who perhaps reject or resent legitimate disciplinary decisions arising out of the behaviour of their children in schools? I would like to hear the thoughts of the Minister on whether the issue is being addressed within the Department. Some people are of the view that something needs to be done in this area.