Garret Kelleher (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an gcinneadh a thóg an tAire Oideachais agus Óige, an Teachta Hildegarde Naughton, inné mar gheall ar chúntóirí riachtanas speisialta sna scoileanna ar fud na tíre. With specific reference to an outstanding community, which has been at the heart of the community which I represent for over 40 years, Scoil Barra National School in Ballincollig, I received a high volume of emails and phone calls from school management, teachers, parents and other members of the wider school community in relation to their well-founded concerns about the proposal to reduce the school's allocation of special needs assistants from 8.33 whole-time equivalents to 6.33 whole-time equivalents. Scoil Barra is a school that prides itself on the culture of inclusion and respect for diversity, which it strives to foster. It has a long history of promoting a neuro-affirmative environment in the school and in providing supports to its pupils with additional learning needs and challenges. For the incoming school year, Scoil Barra has 75 junior infants' pupils enrolled, a high cohort of whom have additional needs, including some pre-verbal children.

In line with the NCSE's recommendations for schools to focus on early intervention with primary schools in its allocation and deployment of special needs assistants, it is the school's intention to deploy three special needs assistants for the incoming junior infants classes. If the proposal that was made in the letter that they received was to be followed through on, that would leave only three whole-time equivalents for the entire remainder of the school population. I cannot stress enough that it is imperative, in the case of Scoil Barra, the history that it has, its proportion of diversity and in the work it does to support its pupils in the school community with additional needs, that the cuts that were proposed in the initial letter are not followed through upon. Again, I welcome the pause in the review announced by the Minister yesterday. I hope that when it comes to it being looked at again, the needs of Scoil Barra will be given the attention they deserve.