Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 10 Feb 1998

Vol. 486 No. 6

Adjournment Debate. - Child Care Assistants.

Mr. Ring

I thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for selecting this matter on the Adjournment tonight. This is probably the most important issue raised in the Dáil today.

The Celtic tiger and the economic boom are of little relevance to the people in St. Bríd's special school. I visited the school last Friday week and met the chairperson, Marina Ryan. I must compliment her and the staff for the wonderful work they do for these people with disabilities. The class dealing with autistic children will be affected by the removal of the child care assistant from the school. Who is weaker in society than these children? Who should be helped more than these children?

On 17 December 1997, the Western Care Association informed St. Bríd's that it will be unable to provide funding for this post in 1998. The resources required for the provision of special education are the responsibility of the Department of Education and Science. The Western Care Association looks after many people in various parts of County Mayo, and there is a great demand for its services. It is not the responsibility of the Western Care Association to assist St. Bríd's special school; it is the responsibility of the Department.

The Minister is a compassionate man and has some understanding. He should not give the usual Civil Service reply tonight —that there are no resources and that this school will be the responsibility of the Western Care Association. A letter I received today from the Western Care Association stated that it will examine this matter again. How could a charitable organisation in County Mayo say it will not assist the people with disabilities in St. Bríd's special school? They would be run out of the county.

The Western Care Association has responsibilities to its own people and this matter is the responsibility of the Department of Education and Science. I call on the Minister to make the necessary resources available to retain this child care assistant.

The Western Care Association does an excellent job. In particular I want to compliment John

O'Dea, a director of the association in Mayo, and Liam McNally who is involved in fund raising. Their job is not to educate young people; that is the responsibility of the Department of Education and Science.

I visited St. Bríd's special school last week I want to compliment the principal, Paul Murphy, who is not well and to whom I extend best wishes. He is a kind and caring man. The assistant principal, Cathy Craughwell, is in charge at present and is doing an excellent job. It is wonderful the way people look after and try to educate those children.

This post involves a small amount of money. The Government collected £115 million more in revenue in December 1997 than expected. I am not looking for £115 million for St. Bríd's special school, but for a few thousand pounds to retain a child care assistant. The Minister should not heed the Civil Service or his officials. He should make a decision to give the school the money it requires. Who needs it more than these children?

This is not about a tax break or buying a third house; it is about the weakest in society, children in a school who need and get special care. What is required is for the Minister to show compassion and to sanction the allocation of a small amount of money. I know he will not let me down and that he will grant aid this post. I am not asking to set a precedent in this regard. This matter is the responsibility of the Department. This school should be given a few pounds to enable it continue its good work. Western Care Association is doing an excellent job and it will continue to raise funds because it has many people on waiting lists for its day care centres. The Department should deal with the education side and the Western Care Association should deal with what it is good at.

I ask the Minister not to put the gun to the head of John O'Dea or the Western Care Association because it is not in a position to give money to St. Bríd's special school. It did not give the school money in December because it did not have it. The association say this is the Minister's responsibility. I know he will respond positively because he is an honourable and decent politician. I ask him to make this money available. This issue will not make the headlines, but it is important to the children concerned. Having visited that special school I thanked God that my children were able to attend a national school. These children get special care and loving attention and I know the Minister will respond in the right way.

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue on the Adjournment. It was also raised by way of a parliamentary question this afternoon to which I replied. I would not underestimate the Deputy's capacity to secure headlines in respect of any issue and I am not sure this will not make them if the Deputy's track record is anything to go by.

The area of special education has exercised my attention since I came to office. The historic evolution of that service depended largely on significant voluntary work, fund raising and the involvement of service providers, be they various religious orders, parents associations and so on, as well as State input from the Departments of Education and Science and Health and Children. That is how the system evolved and what we are dealing with today. We have a good deal of work to do to improve the position in the area of special education throughout the country by ensuring an adequate supply of teachers and child care assistants, and we are making progress in that regard.

Regarding the allocation of child care posts, the bulk of those allocations came under the previous Government's jurisdiction, particularly the allocation of posts for the school year 1997-8. My opportunity to ensure a significant improvement in this area arises with the allocation of the demographic dividend in respect of the 1998-9 school year. That is well understood in education circles and Deputy Ring will be aware of that. He probably made representations to the previous Government on this issue, but matters did not materialise in accordance with his priority.

I have been advised that, following representations made by officials of the Department of Health and Children to the Western Care Association, the association agreed to review its decision to withdraw funding for the post of child care assistant in St. Bríd's special school from now until the end of the year.

St. Bríd's special school caters for children with a moderate, severe or profound mental handicap. At present, the school has 25 children in moderate classes, and ten pupils in two classes for severely and profoundly mentally handicapped children. My Department has sanctioned seven teacher posts, including the principal and three posts of child care assistants for this school. One of those teachers caters for the needs of a number of pupils who, in addition to their moderate mental handicap, are autistic. I understand the Western Care Association funded the post of child care assistant in this class but recently informed the school that funding for this child care assistant will be withdrawn in 1998. The school has applied to my Department for an additional child care assistant post. At present, my Department has sanction for 280 posts of child care assistant. All of these posts have been allocated. As a result, my Department is not in a position to allocate child care assistant posts to any school, including St. Bríd's special school for the remainder of the l997-8 school year. My capacity to allocate child care assistant posts in any year is entirely dependent on resource availability and the level of competing demand across the special needs area.

Where such posts become available, they are allocated on the basis of priority of need. In recent years such posts have generally been allocated to cater for the needs of children with a severe or profound mental handicap. I note in this context that St. Bríd's school has two such posts.

I am currently reviewing provision across the special needs area to ensure that all available resources are deployed as effectively as possible. The issue of child care assistant support, particularly the case of St. Bríd's special school, will be considered as part of this review. In the interim, I am pleased the Western Care Association, under the circumstances, agreed to reconsider its decision. I wish to extend my thanks to it for that decision.

The Deputy may be interested to know that in the 1995-6 school year a pilot programme of special education services was established for children with autism. Under that programme a number of special classes dedicated specifically to the needs of these children were established. The programme involves the allocation of extra teachers to specifically address the educational needs of children with autism, the delivery of specially tailored education programmes to meet the needs of these children and the delivery of special in-service support to the teachers concerned. My Department's inspectorate commenced a review of the operations of that pilot programme. The review, which is expected to be completed by the end of the current school year, will provide a basis for the development of future responses to the educational needs of children with autism.