Carol Nolan presses for urgent support for Offaly special school

Today I want to raise with you an issue that is not only of considerable importance to my own constituency of Offaly, but one which is also of critical importance to many areas nationally that have witnessed a dramatic increase in the level of demand. I am referring to our special education schools and the enormous pressure that they are under every single day to keep the doors open, retain staff and deliver urgent therapeutic interventions to all of the pupils in their care. Last November there was major disappointment and anger at the news that special schools in Leash and Offaly had yet again been excluded from participation in the then government's pilot programme for enhanced school therapy supports. Offaly School of Special Education Tullamore, St Francis Special School Portlaoise and Colby School Portlaoise were also denied entry to this pilot programme in August when phase one of the initiative was announced. Today however I want to specifically highlight the challenges faced by Offaly School of Special Education. I visited this school myself some months ago, it is a fantastic school and I want to take the opportunity to commend the principal and all of the teachers and hard-working SNAs who do so much to help those students in that school and what I witnessed was certainly very very impressive and the care of all students was was to be noted. This year Offaly School of Special Education had 18 applications for just one space that it was capable of offering. Next year it will still have just one vacancy. The school were promised two in-school therapists, an occupational therapist and a speech therapist, a speech and language therapist as well, but to date the HSE have been unable to fill these positions despite many, many months of trying. These difficulties in securing additional SNAs from the NCSE is also proving to be exceptionally cumbersome. I am constantly informed that not only is the paperwork onerous but that there is actually a cap placed on the number of SNAs that any special school can have and this really should be based on need. It would make far more sense if it was based on need rather than a cap. How is it reasonable and why is this criteria being applied to special schools when there is a need and when there is absolutely justification for them hiring more SNAs? I am aware also that planning for the new school will be going by the middle of this month into the county council, but there is an urgent need to guarantee that the school will be built on time and indeed well equipped. The proposed completion date for the new school is at the end of 2027 and it is imperative that this happens. My question is, the school is not asking for miracles, but it is asking for adequate staff support, an increase in enhanced therapeutic resources and a recognition that the current system is just not fit for purpose. Will you please commit to ensuring that the school receives whatever help it needs to keep its doors open? First of all, I would say thank the Deputy for raising the issue. You have been raising the issues for quite some time previously on the floor of the House in respect to special needs education more generally, but here you are specifically referencing the special school in the society, the Offaly School of Special Education, and also you have referenced the last pilot scheme that was announced last summer in respect of 11 special schools across the country. As I said earlier in a reply to questions on special education, the overall objective of government is to ensure that every parent will know well in advance that there is a school place for their child for the following September. Now, and I have also outlined the exponential growth in the number of SNAs, in the number of special needs assistants, in the number of special teachers, that will continue to grow and indeed has grown and will grow this year. There is no specific cap on any school, there shouldn't be, you are correct, it should be on the basis of need, but there is a general guideline and framework that the NCSE, National Council of Special Education, works by. The pilot scheme has not worked, and the pilot scheme was initiated with a view to hoping to have an impact from September on of the 24, if you like, 25 school year. And ideally the HSE were to provide therapists for about 11 special schools and see how it would work. It has happened in some schools, it hasn't happened in others, and what we've had is an alignment of therapists to the schools, but they're not actually based in situ working in the schools. So I convened a meeting, and we had a meeting of the Cabinet Subcommittee on Disability, a decision has been taken that we're setting up a national therapy education programme. Basically, the education will be recruiting and employing through the NCSE therapists to work in the 124 special schools across the country. We have to do that on a phase basis, but we want to have that in place by next September or commencing next September. So the Minister for Education, Minister McEntee and Minister for Special Education, are working up proposals to come back to government with a view to how that scheme would work, and with a view to having it commenced in September of this year for the 2025-26 school year. I'm of the view, have been for quite some time, that we need multidisciplinary teams starting in special schools. We were frustrated over the last two years in getting that over the line, and the pilot was a response to it. The pilot hasn't worked. So I made it clear during the general election that I wanted this to happen. I made it clear that it had to go into the programme for government. I made it clear to all officials in all departments, in the HSE, that this is going to happen. It's a government commitment, I'm going to do it, and we'll evaluate over time in terms of further expansion. Thank you, Taoiseach. Deputy. I thank you for your response, Taoiseach, and absolutely the pilot scheme has failed. We can certainly be all in agreement there. But I'm concerned over, I suppose, the backlog of children waiting for these in-school therapists. And I do recognise and indeed acknowledge that there will be a forum set up, a disability forum, and that's certainly progress in the right direction. But my concern is that there is a vacuum now, there is a need now. The school, I know, has done its level best in trying to work to get the in-school therapists in place. They're still not in place. And I'm just wondering that as a solution, is it possible that private therapists could be hired in the interim until the disability forum gets working properly? Because I feel that this is an emergency situation. And I know in terms of the SNAs, yes, they have been increased across the country, that's correct. But there are needs, and particularly acute needs, in special schools. And they feel that, you know, the current framework is restrictive. So could more flexibility be given in terms of the NCSC framework in allowing them more latitude to hire SNAs? I think the, first of all, I acknowledge there's a vacuum. The danger though, I do think we need a structured approach as a country, because between health and education, and as you know, we're all aware in the House, in terms of CD&T workforce, it has grown, there has been issues with recruitment, they are making progress. So we want to do this in a way we don't want to, if you like, undermine capacity within the health service. We want to recruit and retain more therapists overall in the public service. So therefore, I think we have to get a structure right first, because the danger is we could create an alternative system that would ultimately undermine our capacities in the public service. It's not ideal, I fully accept there's a vacuum at the moment, and in some areas of the country, the private option, very few place, but it has been utilised. But ultimately, and Minister Lawless has been asked to substantially increase the number of therapists in our schools. We also want to work with Coru to recruit more therapists from overseas. We recruit many professionals from overseas, but there seems to be an issue with therapists and getting them qualified here, getting their qualifications acknowledged here. And that's the issue we're going to pursue. Thank you. Thank you, Tisha.