Danny Healy-Rae Demands Proper SNE Assessments After Paused Visits
Danny Healy-Rae addressed shortcomings in how Special Needs Education (SNE) supports are being delivered in schools, saying a recent departmental pause on visits is insufficient. He criticised short, non-engaging departmental visits and warned they risk disadvantaging pupils who require SNE or SNA support.
Thanking teachers and visitors
Danny Healy-Rae opened by thanking Sinn Féin for the opportunity to speak and welcoming people in the gallery. He praised SNE teachers, honorary teachers and principal teachers in Kerry for their long-standing work and said communities rely heavily on their efforts.
Concerns about recent departmental visits
He said a pause on the issue is welcome but not enough, and described instances where departmental staff entered schools briefly, remained in a room and left without touring classrooms or meeting teachers. He said that happened in a number of schools and insisted it should not be repeated.
Impact on disadvantaged pupils and children with language needs
Danny Healy-Rae warned that the current approach risks hurting the most disadvantaged children and slowing down assessments for those who need help. He mentioned children from other countries with language difficulties and said SNA/SNE supports are essential so those pupils do not hold back their classmates, as well as practical help with feeding and personal care for some children.
Call for accountability and change
He apologised as a member of the Dáil for what occurred the previous week and urged the minister and departmental staff to take responsibility. He demanded that future assessments involve classroom visits and engagement with teachers to ensure every child receives the support they need.
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Thank you, thank you very much, a dedicated opportunity, and I want to thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about this very important matter before us. I want to welcome the people in the gallery, concerning people, and I want to, first of all, thank all the SNE teachers that we have in Kerry, and all the honorary teachers and the principal teachers. I want to thank them for the wonderful work they have been doing in Kerry over the last great number of years, and we all rely on teachers and need them so very, very much. I'm glad that he paused this case and problem that was raised amongst our schools in Kerry last week, and indeed right around the country. But pause is still not enough for me. This, if you want to, we must get to know how a child deserves an SNE teacher, and not people arrive into school like they did a couple of months ago, go into a room by themselves to them, and didn't go through the classrooms, didn't go around and meet the teachers, only said who they were, and after an hour and a half went off. Now, that didn't happen in every school, but it happened in a good few ministers, and I want to advise you to that. And this is a real problem for me, because we were always brought up with the idea that is in the Constitution that the children of the country must be treated equally. Not only are we doing that now, but we were hurting the more disadvantaged children, the children that needed a bit of help. And I want to, there's different things can be a problem for children, and they develop accepted problems, and it is a real issue for young parents, maybe, when they find there's something wrong with their child, and to get that child assessed, and to get that child everything that they can to make him or her as good as the rest of the children. And that takes too long as it is, but there are many other problems that arises with little children when they go to school first. And in Kerry, we have a problem that's quite a big problem, where we have children from other countries who have language difficulties, and if we didn't have SNA teachers to help them, but the rest of the children would be held back if those children weren't there. But do we understand that, Minister? And that has to be looked at, and that has to be brought into the equation, and ensure that every child gets what they need. Some children have to be helped to go to the bathroom, all those little things. They have to be helped to be fed, and after a while, they get going and they'll pass out other children. And that's the truth of it, Ministers. I'm very disappointed, and I apologise as a member of Dalian for what has happened last week. It shouldn't be happening, because, as I said, our children are doing their level, our teachers are doing their level best. There was no one of them either. And I do know that in certain schools, these two people from the department, and I have till three minutes, these people came into the department, and are into the school from the department, and never talked or went around the classrooms. That's not right, and that shouldn't happen. And I don't know who's, who, but here the Ministers, and here to take the blame, so I'm sure that that doesn't happen again. That's what I'm asking.
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