Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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195. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will reverse the 15% cut to resource hours made by the previous Minister during the economic emergency; if she will reverse the resource hour cuts to pupils with dyslexia and general mild learning disabilities made by the previous Government in 2005, during the reign of the Celtic tiger; if she will reverse the cuts to English as an additional language teachers; if she will reverse the cuts to resource teachers for travellers; if she will reverse the cuts to counsellors; if she will increase the number of learning support teachers to support our youngest children with potential learning difficulties, as per the learning support guidelines of 2000; if she will increase the number of learning support teachers, enabling schools to support gifted pupils in accordance with the Education Act 1998; if she will implement the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, which appears to have remained in a state of perpetual deferral since its enactment; if she will reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in schools here and put an end to overcrowded classrooms for the betterment of our children and society as a whole; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7252/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Budget 2015 included an increase in spending on education for the first time in recent years, amounting to additional funding of €60m during 2015.

This funding will be used to provide 1,700 additional teachers and SNAs for our schools, as well as to fund prioritised reforms, such as implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy, reform of junior cycle, and the introduction of education focussed pre-school inspections. It was not possible to also secure the funding which would have been required to change the staffing schedule for schools.

With regard to Resource Teachers for Travellers, the principle of inclusion is at the core of the Report and Recommendations for a Traveller Education Strategy published in 2006 and, accordingly, the focus of both current and future provision is on the development of a more inclusive school environment. In keeping with this principle, additional resources provided in the education system are allocated on the basis of identified individual educational need rather than that of ethnic or cultural background.

Following decisions of the last Government, as part of the December 2010 budgetary process, Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching now receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools. This is in keeping with the policy of inclusion and the 2006 report.

The General Allocation Model, which provides additional learning support and English as an additional language allocations for primary schools, was updated for all primary schools from the 2012/13 school year and now includes the Traveller pupils who had previously been supported by Resource Teacher for Traveller (RTT) posts under the General Allocation Model.

Limited alleviation measures were also put in place to assist schools who had high concentrations of Traveller pupils previously supported by Resource Teacher for Traveller posts/hours, in the context of the limited resources available.

Provision for English Language Support posts is now provided for under the General Allocation Model for schools, while further additional temporary language support posts are provided on the basis of appeals to the Staffing Appeal Boards. The appeal criteria are set out in the published staffing arrangements.

Since September 2012 guidance counsellor provision is now being organised by school management from within the staffing schedule allocation. In this way principals have discretion to balance guidance needs with the pressures to provide subject choice. My Department helped shelter the impact for DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocations. All 195 second-level school in DEIS have been given targeted support by a more favourable staffing schedule of 18.25:1. This is a 0.75 point reduction compared to the existing PTR of 19:1 that applies in non fee-paying second-level schools (23:1 in fee-charging schools). There is no scope to reverse this budget measure.

Guidance and counselling are a whole-school responsibility, with guidance counsellors playing their part within an overall team approach. The representative organisations for school principals and school management have developed a framework that assists schools on how best to manage the provision of guidance from within their staffing allocation. Wherever possible, group work and class-based activity should be used to maximise the amount of time available for those pupils who are most in need of one-to-one support.

In February my Department published a guide to developing student support teams in post-primary schools. This is an important resource for schools in promoting and protecting students' well-being and an aid to establishing a team or reviewing an existing team.

Guidance counsellors have two distinct functions. The first is general career guidance and guidance on the educational opportunities a child or young person might pursue, while the second involves support for students' well-being. The principal and leadership of a school have the best knowledge and experience to determine how exactly guidance resources and teaching resources should be allocated.

It should be noted that there has been no overall reduction to the level of investment being provided to support children with special educational needs in our schools. On the contrary, the number of SNA and Resource Teaching posts being allocated to support children with special educational needs has increased in recent years to reflect demographic growth and increased demand in this area.

This Government has been resolutely committed to protecting, and in some instances increasing, the level of investment being made to support children with special educational needs at a time when there has been a requirement to make expenditure reductions across a range of areas. It is an area of spending which has been prioritised above most other areas by this Government, despite the enormous pressures on all areas of public spending.

Some €1.37 billion will be spent in support of children with Special Educational Needs this year, which represents approximately 15% of my Department's budget.

365 new Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts and 480 resource teaching posts have been provided to support children with special educational needs in schools in 2015, bringing the total number of SNAs available for allocation in 2015 to 11,330 posts and the total number of resource teaching posts to 6,705. Over 11,000 resource and learning support teaching posts are now available. This is the highest level of SNA and resource teaching allocations that we have ever had, and will ensure that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

With regard to the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act, a number of sections have been commenced, including those establishing the National Council for Special Education and those promoting an inclusive approach to education of children.

The NCSE report on 'Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools' which was published in 2013 and is available on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie, recommends that the EPSEN Act be fully implemented as soon as possible. The report also states that the NCSE recognises that the current economic climate makes it unlikely that the Government will be able to implement this recommendation in the short to medium term.

It is therefore intended to bring into effect many of the good ideas contained in the EPSEN Act, on a non-statutory basis initially, through policy developments across a range of areas, in conjunction with NCSE policy advice.

With regard to the proposed new model of allocation, the Deputy will be aware that last week I announced that I am not proposing to change the way teachers are allocated to schools for children with Special Educational Needs for the coming school year.

In making this decision to retain the current model for allocating resource and learning support teachers for the coming year, I have been guided by the advice of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) Working Group report, which recommended that sufficient time should be allowed for further consultation totake place with the education stakeholders before the new model is implemented in schools.

Through consultations which have already taken place, there was a broad welcome for the proposed new model from Parents, disability groups, schools and stakeholders. However, while there has been significant consultation in relation to the proposed new model, there has not been sufficient time to address fully all of the concerns which have been raised, particularly those concerns relating to the profiling of schools, in advance the September 2015 school year.

In particular, a robust mechanism for identifying children with complex special educational needs has yet to be finalised. Similarly it will be important to ensure that the concerns that successful schools continue to receive appropriate levels of support to ensure that their successes can be maintained are addressed.

The proposed new allocation model was developed following advice received from the NCSE which indicated that the current model which requires that there is a formal assessment and diagnosis in place before an allocation is provided is unfair. The advice recommended removing diagnosis as a prerequisite for receiving support. The NCSE working group provided additional advice recommending that providing support to schools based on their educational profile was the best way currently available to ensure that schools would be able to support all children with special educational needs who needed such support.

While the proposed new model is not proceeding for the coming year, work will continue in the coming months to develop the proposed new allocation model and to address the range of concerns which were identified through the consultations which have taken place so far, including the manner in which school profiles are developed.

I have asked my Department to design a pilot of the new model which schools could opt into on a voluntary basis.

Continuing consultation with stakeholders will be a vital part of the ongoing work.