Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be as quick as I can. I echo what Senator Murphy said. I think the Minister's handling of the situation has been extraordinary. She has shown great dignity, respect and regard for everybody. It is a sobering reminder that the human beings who put algorithms in place are susceptible to errors. I seriously question the lack of a checking mechanism. What oversight was there of the pathway of the communication of the instructions mechanism of the contractor and what was going on in that regard? I echo Senator Byrne's points on the issue.

I wish to raise a matter regarding next year's leaving certificate. This year, some students who are native speakers did not have the opportunity to be part of the calculated grades process. They did not need tutors. I refer to native Arabic speakers who could sit the exam and who had no issue in that regard but, as a result, they had no tutors to objectively verify their results and create their calculated grade. I respectfully ask the Minister if there is a possibility that we could put in place regional panels of tutors for next year that these students could go to because I venture to say there are not many secondary school teachers who teach Arabic, and we need to put a mechanism in place because, by and large, the schools that approached me did so on behalf of students living in direct provision who did not have recourse to the courts. We need to anticipate what will happen next year.

I wish to address the issue of special needs assistants. I am aware that the Department has sought advice to create a system of advice for special needs assistants and the provisions for them in schools at the moment. Many special needs assistants are very happy with their experience of work, however, there are those who are not. I represented a lot of them in my past life as an employment barrister and, as a consequence as a Senator I am a magnet for such people to come to me to raise their issues. I am aware that there is a potential reference to the Workplace Relations Commission by Fórsa on their behalf because there are no provisions for some of them. They are not factored into the plans for schools and no provisions have been made for them. They are obliged to perhaps sit on chairs in a corner of classrooms. They cannot always share desks with their special educational needs students because they might, for example, have families in high-risk categories. We really need the Department to address the issue and to outline very clear guidelines on the treatment and work conditions of special needs assistants in the current circumstances. In schools where they are treated as second-class citizens, albeit that it is a very small cohort, they need to be able to point to something from the Department to assist their situation.

An analogous issue concerns boards of management. By and large, schools have been exceptional and I appreciate and respect that. However, in a small portion of schools the board of management is merely a rubber-stamping mechanism for the principal. While I appreciate that the Minister is not the employer and is not responsible for boards of management, the Department could play a role similar to that of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Companies Registration Office where directions or booklets are issued with regard to the duty of care of boards of management. In circumstances where the discussion of autism spectrum disorder units or special needs assistants or where there has been a grievance procedure or a decision of the Workplace Relations Commission, boards of management do not always know what is going on or if members politely raise the issue it is politely suggested to them that they might step down from the board of management if they do something other than acting as a rubber-stamp for principals. I accept that the Minister is not responsible but I believe the she has a role as the funder and the employer of teachers to create a guidance booklet to ensure that boards of management are aware of their role in terms of duty of care and what is expected of them in the same way as the directors of a company would be.