asked the Minister for Education the provisions, if any, her Department have made in the Dublin region for appropriate educational facilities for aphasic children; and her future plans for this area.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Facilities for Aphasic Children.
7.
I take it that the Deputy is using the term "aphasic" as relating to severe language and learning disorder.
The schools for the deaf in Cabra have catered for some children with less severe disorder, which may be associated with such hearing impairment.
With regard to the very severe form of the disorder, my Department currently provide for learning and language disordered pupils in an experimental unit attached to a local national school in Tallaght, County Dublin — Scoil Ard Mhuire, Belgard, Tallaght. This unit has a full time teacher and the necessary medical back-up services, speech therapist etc. This unit currently caters for six pupils.
The number of pupils who require such facilities is very small, amounting to perhaps less than ten cases in the Dublin city area. However, in response to the needs of such pupils residing in the north side of the city, my Department are currently considering the establishment of a similar experimental unit in the north city.
I accept that there are a number of these institutions and facilities on both the north and south sides of the city. My concern is in relation to acute language disorder and there are more than ten such cases. Is it true that the personnel involved in these areas in the Belgard school and other institutions like Cabra and St. Michael's House are not of specialist qualification in the area of remedial language?
With regard to Belgard, I have not the information about the numbers of staff. I would be very concerned if staff were not qualified to deal with the problem. Regarding the special class in the north city there are some difficulties in recruiting a teacher with specialist qualifications and negotiations are going on which I hope will be resolved shortly.
I would not want to say anything that would in any way damage that prospect. Is there any person involved in this area who has a specialist qualification in remedial language? I am not asking if teachers are qualified because I know they are and that they are doing a very good job. I ask the Minister to deal with that question again. Is the Minister aware that there is no specialist qualified in language remediation available in this country in accordance with the criteria used by the Department?
I am not so aware. My advice is that we have people who are adequately qualified to teach people who have language problems. We have had some difficulty in the centre in the north city which should be ironed out shortly.
There is a lot of concern in certain areas about the centre in the north city. Is the Minister aware that there was a specialist in language remediation available to his Department in relation to the proposal for a pilot programme in that area? Is he aware that that communication was sent to the Department? Why, subsequently, was that person not acceptable to the Department?
I am aware of all that took place in relation to the class in the north city. I know the person the Deputy has in mind and I have had a number of meetings with him. The experts in my Department are more competent than I in matters of that kind. This is an experimental class for a year or two years, the period to be determined. The person was asked to accept part time work in the north city, which is being serviced by the Eastern Health Board. The class is being conducted by another teacher. Negotiations took place, involving a considerable number of meetings, and that person saw fit not to accept the post part time. That is the reason for the delay in setting up the class in Drumcondra.
Is the Minister aware that when that person was made an offer — I accept he was made an offer — the offer was entirely impossible? I understand that the person was offered a situation in conditions that involved commuting between Belgard and Drumcondra. Irrespective of the information available to the Minister, I suggest it would be impossible for that person to deal with two separate programmes.
I do not want to go into details in regard to somebody who has been the subject of prolonged discussions in the House. I do not want to make public the negotiations that took place.
The question seems to be a general one and not specific.
I do not accept the Deputy's statement that the person was put in an impossible position. The job is shared with other people. There is a speech therapist in both schools and the travel involved would not be an inhibition.
Are the Minister and the Department satisfied that because of the acute specialist need involved in a limited number of cases in the city the ordinary qualifications — which I have myself and which I respect — and additional remedial qualifications, plus special class qualifications, are adequate? If the Department believe they are, I disagree totally with them. If they are not convinced, why did they not employ the services of a specialist for this pilot programme, if only for a one or two year term?
The question is very complicated and difficult. My advice is that we have experts in regard to remedial education. We have teachers who are doing very valuable work in regard to the training and education of those impaired children. I do not accept that we have not got specialists.
If Deputies want to spend an inordinate length of time at one question, a repetition of yesterday, we cannot get to the other questions——
We have a specific, acute problem and we have not got qualified specialists to deal with it. Will the Minister look at this urgently to ensure that in a reasonable time specialists qualified in that area will be brought on stream. Will the Minister ensure that rumours which seem to be rife about this problem will be considered by the Department in a serious manner and sorted out if they are true?
I am constantly looking at the problem in relation to the improvement of the facilities for the training and education of special children. I do not accept that we have not got specialists in Ireland to deal with the problem.