Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 25 May 2000

Vol. 519 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Secretarial and Caretaking Services.

Mr. Broughan:

For the constituencies of Dublin North-East and Dublin North-Central it is fortunate that the Minister for Education and Science is a local TD. There are 15 or 20 major educational issues which should be addressed urgently, two of which I shall focus on this evening.

St. Paul's special school, Beaumont, which is under the trusteeship of the Sisters of Mercy, has about 48 severely emotionally disturbed and autistic children ranging in age from four to 18 years. The nine teachers in six classrooms depend heavily on additional care and special needs assistants. A couple of years ago the Minister's predecessor said St. Paul's special school was entitled to four extra classroom assistants but, four years later, nothing has happened. This year it was informed there would be a full school inspection by the Department to assess the need for these care assistants. With only a few weeks to go to the end of the school year the Department has failed to carry out the assessment or to give any encouragement to the school.

The pupils in St. Paul's special school who have acute needs are among the most vulnerable in the primary and secondary system. Often teachers find classroom control and management of the children extremely difficult. That is the reason a care assistant is essential for each classroom.

The Minister of State may be aware that the State of New Jersey has an intensive, highly staffed, programme for autistic children which seems to be successful, yet in Ireland, in St. Paul's special school, we have not even started a decent programme in terms of staff support.

I wish to raise briefly also the secretarial and caretaking needs of Scoil Áine girls national school, Raheny. This is a famous, widely admired, outstanding girls national school, which has been responsible for the education of generations of Raheny women. Currently it has 345 pupils and 14 full-time staff. It has had a major struggle in its search for equipment and extra classrooms in recent years given that the pupil-teacher ratio in eight of the 11 classes is over 30 and two exceed that number.

Ten years ago the school had a full-time caretaker. When he retired he was not replaced. Often the principal says that if one wants to help it would be better to give her a new tool box. Effectively, she has to do the caretaking duties because she has not been given the necessary resources. The school shares its secretary with nearby St. Eithne's senior girls school in Edenmore. The parents in that area and my constituents are irate that neither of these issues had been tackled by the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin, and so far have not been tackled by our local Minister, Deputy Woods.

The Minister will say that recently he allocated £9 million for a special fund for caretaking and secretarial facilities. In the case of caretaking this will increase the grant to Scoil Áine from £5,200 to £6,800 which is well below the minimum wage. In a recent letter, the Minister, Deputy Woods, wrote, "My Department does not have any role in determining the pay and conditions under which they [that is, the caretakers and secretaries] are employed." That is a cop out because it is he who can decide the overall grant. The school has also problems in relation to cleaning and the psychological service which started only recently. The principal and staff consider that this outstanding girls primary school does not have the basic resources to enable it to do its job properly.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Hanafin, for attending to reply on behalf of her colleague. I urge the Minister, Deputy Woods, to ensure the vulnerable pupils of St. Paul's special school, Beaumont, and the burgeoning school and hard-pressed staff of Scoil Áine, Raheny, will be looked after in the coming months.

Ms Hanafin:

I thank Deputy Broughan for raising the two issues. The Department of Education and Science is committed to ensuring that all schools catering for children with special needs, including St. Paul's special school, receive the level of child care assistant support they require to enable them to cater for the children in their care. St. Paul's special school caters for children who suffer from emotional disturbance and requires the support of child care assistants to help teaching staff in catering for the special needs of the children concerned.

St. Paul's special school has the services of two child care assistant posts allocated by the Department of Education and Science. However, the Department is currently reviewing the child care requirements of all schools catering for children with special needs, including St. Paul's special school. The objective of this exercise is to ensure that all such schools have access to the level of child care support recommended by the special education review committee.

It is expected that this review, which will be completed shortly, will result in the allocation of additional child care posts to St. Paul's special school. The Department will be in touch with the authorities at St. Paul's in relation to this matter in the near future.

In relation to Scoil Áine girls' national school, Raheny, Dublin 5, the Minister for Education and Science recently met with the principal of this school to discuss a range of issues, including its secretarial and caretaking needs. The school is involved in a secretarial sharing arrangement with another primary school under the 1978 scheme for the employment of secretaries in primary schools.

In addition to the shared secretary arrangement the school had up to this year been receiving an additional per capita grant of £15 per pupil towards the cost of caretaking services under the PESP scheme introduced in 1992. In view of the increased allocation made available this year, effective from January, all primary schools with 100 or more pupils became eligible for a grant towards caretaking services under the scheme. In addition the Minister increased the rate of grant by 33% to £20 per pupil. This has resulted in the grant for caretaking services to the school increasing from £5,190 in 1999 to £6,880 this year. The Department has issued the increased grant to the school. With effect from September 2000 all primary schools will become eligible for grant assistance under the scheme. The Department has recently issued a circular to all schools on the matter.

The allocation for grant assistance to schools in respect of caretaking and secretarial services increased from approximately £5.6 million in 1999 to £12.2 million this year. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that in framing proposals for the spending of the increased allocation it was necessary for the Department to examine means of ensuring all schools would receive assistance in respect of such services. The scheme the Department has put in place will mean that from next September all primary schools will for the first time be receiving grant assistance in respect of these services from the Department. In addition the increase of 33% in the rate of grant also means that schools which were receiving assistance have had their grant levels significantly increased.

The school referred to by the Deputy has benefited from the enhanced scheme which has been put in place. The Minister is committed to seeking further improvements in the resources available to schools in respect of secretarial and caretaking services.