Matt Shanahan: Highlights Special Education Shortfalls and Family Strain

Ministers, I welcome this bill in relation to the provision of education for children with special needs and I thank you both ministers for being here in the House today. I think it has been well outlined at this stage we have a significant problem in the country in relation to providing the educational pathway to children with special needs and disability and I know we all want to provide in as much as possible the opportunity for children to be offered education in mainstream schools where possible and certainly close to their own homes. and their own siblings where appropriate. I also note, Minister Mulligan, your invokment of Section 37A in order to try and move schools capacity issue along and I think that was probably a difficult decision for you to make but necessary. I think we can all acknowledge the challenges that families are facing in this country at the moment, particularly those families who have a need of special education for their children. We have parents who are basically burned out I would say and are acting as family carers in some cases particularly for children with profound disability but even for those with mild sensory disability and others it is a difficult challenge for parents to manage. The children themselves. The children themselves want to be included in amongst their peers and no child likes to be excluded regardless of how they made their sensory perception of the world. Children want to be with children generally and they do better in that situation but they do need oftentimes specialist one-to-one care and I think we have to give a big hand out to teachers in this country and I've engaged with a lot of teachers and a lot of schools and my experience has been that teachers predominantly want to offer the best possible opportunity to every single pupil in their school and their school and their frustration is largely born out of the fact of what is perceived a lack of resourcing and we know we have significant problems we know the government is trying to do what it can in terms of additional funding but the requirements are there for additional places for additional supports. Can I just read a letter from my colleague in the regional group Dennis Naughton into the record please. He says Minister Madigan has on more than one occasion told the Dáil that where schools were collaborating and there was a willingness to open special classes they should be given the space and time to do that. Despite that approach being taken the department and the NCSE are not supporting schools that are willing to establish special classes. For example St Cormanswood Primary School in Roscommon Town has been refused a special class for children with multiple and complex disabilities. This is despite the school having the numbers for such a class and despite the fact the application was supported by both the HSE senior psychologist in the child disability network team and the local Seno. He says I note there are 25 special classes in mainstream schools for children with multiple disabilities throughout the country. There are two in Clare, five in Cork, two in Duddy Gaul, four in Galway, eight in Kerry, one in Loud and three in Mayo. Not one has been sanctioned for County Roscommon and indeed not one has been sanctioned for my own County of Waterford. Regarding Roscommon he said despite the fact that a board of management has identified a need, supported the school in making the applications and received the endorsement of both the HSE and the Seno, the Department of Education is not willing to support the establishment of this special class. So I think this raises a serious question as to exactly what is going on. If we have people allied to the school sector who through the pathways are recommending special classes and if the department is not supporting them, well I think that is the situation that needs to be looked at ministers. Can I also just talk about the provision of SNAs? I have a number of schools who have been on to me particularly about trying to grow the number of SNAs. In one particular case the school in West Warford has been on to the department many months ago outlining quite a difficult disability case that was coming into the school, outlining their needs for support and requesting an additional SNA to help this child. What they were told was bring the child into the school and let the child enroll and then make the application in September. Now this child is in a wheelchair and has particular issues particularly around bathroom and all of that and they do not have the wherewithal. I know that I think there was an appeal put in on this case but as far as I know nothing has been heard. But I think this is what outlines the frustration of teachers and teaching management. We must have a better pathway to try and engage in terms of these individual issues. At the end of the day, like so much in Dáil Éireann, it is not rocket science. It requires people to sit down and communicate and understand the needs from both sides of the House and what is possible in terms of reporting. I would like to also pay tribute to Niall Muldoon in his Ombudsman's report where he flagged a number of issues which have been discussed widely in this House, but not least the need in as much as possible to try and provide educational places close to the children's home. And I know that we have, I think it is 15,500 children approximately attending special education at the moment. And funny enough, what is happening in special education also mirrors the difficulties of trying to access disability services, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy. We had a situation in Waterford where we have families in Waterford who are being centred on Garvin for OT and speech and language, etc. two days a week. And the round trip now, if you just put that into a family budget, that is a round trip of 60 miles two days a week at 120 miles. That is approximately three gallons of petrol. That is an additional 30 euro per week, 120 euro per month of net after tax revenue in terms of just trying to support that one simple activity to try and move your children along. And again, I think it points to a need for a more joined up approach. The other issue which has been widely raised is the lack of psychological assessments and indeed the Ombudsman highlighted that there are 4,000 appointments waiting. And I have spoken to large schools with in excess of 350, 400 students and they get a total on average number of appointments, psychological assessments, two in the year. And on any intake in the year, if we are saying that, you know, that there is some level of potentially children on the autism spectrum can be up to one in four. Well, straight away we can see that children are being excluded from the pathway to maybe some specialised supports. We also know we have 1,500 children in home tuition and look at the pressure that that puts on again on a family member. And it usually falls onto the mothers and fathers in the main, but sometimes onto the siblings who end up acting as semi-carers in a house. I would also point to the fact that, and this is, it is a fact, which is the increasing and worsening trends of the autism spectrum in Ireland. And unfortunately it has been mirrored across Europe as well, but at present it is assessed that 25% of the student population may be somewhere in that range. And I wonder, are we doing enough for this country to try and look at the potential problems of what might be causing this? Because I do not think it was as prevalent. In fact, I know it was not 25, 30 years ago. And you can look at the data, it tells you that. But we must start looking at research in terms of food, in terms of genetics, in terms of environment, probably even in terms of our water provision. Because there is something going on in the country presently, which is leading to an increased amount of children who are suffering and requiring special educational needs and have attention to deficit disorder, etc. So I suppose I am asking the department, and I think the Ombudsman pointed this out in another way, saying that we are probably being more reactive than active. I am asking the department to try and look and to engage with research bodies and see, are there common themes in terms of public information and public health that we could look to try and mitigate this rising trend? Beyond that, look, as I say, I know it is a very difficult space for government, and I know government is putting nearly a quarter of its educational budget now into the provision of special educational needs in places. And this is not a new problem, and it is not going to be sorted in the next year or two. But I do commend the work of both ministers and what you are trying to do in what is a very difficult space. But I think we do need probably more clear-lined communications between schools and the department, and we need to have better assessment in terms of trying to get early intervention, because that is the key to try and really impact this problem. Colonel Michael, how are you looking? Thank you very much.