Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 May 2005

Vol. 180 No. 10

Special Educational Needs.

Mr. J. Phelan

This issue involves a child in Kilkenny with special educational needs. The situation was brought to my attention a little over a year ago by the principal of the school the child attends when the school was having difficulty securing resource hours from the Department of Education and Science for the child. The child cannot speak. Anybody will agree that this is a severe impairment for a child in infants class in a primary school.

After the principal contacted me, I took the usual parliamentary route for pursuing these queries. One of the mechanisms I adopted was putting down a parliamentary question, through Deputy Enright, in the other House. I was surprised, indeed shocked, that an official of the Department of Education and Science telephoned the principal of the school in question on the day before the parliamentary question was answered to tell the principal that the child was not eligible for resource hours.

Why was the school principal contacted on the day before the parliamentary question was answered to be told the resource hours were not applicable to the child? Why did the Department deny to me in formal correspondence any knowledge of this child's case yet when I made a freedom of information request the file on the child was discovered in the Department? Why did it take 19 months for the resource hours which were allocated to the child to be confirmed? This was only confirmed following the freedom of information request.

Does this type of occurrence happen regularly? Many children in this country have special educational needs. Are many of these children granted resource hours but not told about it by the Department for 19 months or longer? The school in question did everything by the book. It contracted a psychologist to assess the child two months before the child was due to start in the school. The psychologist spent two days assessing the child and sent the findings to the board of management. The board of management forwarded the assessment to the Department.

The Department said it would investigate the situation and that resource hours would be awarded within five or six weeks. However, the school's board of management had to pay for a special needs assistant for this child for almost two years out of its funds. Will the Department refund the board of management of this school for doing the Department's work in this case?

The case angers me greatly. I have been in politics for six years, in Kilkenny County Council and the Seanad, and I have never encountered such a case of neglect. The officials in the Department were attempting to pull the wool over my eyes and those of the school principal, the child concerned and the child's parents. Children are the most vulnerable members of society and a child with special educational needs is surely the most vulnerable of that group. I do not wish to get angry with the Minister of State because he is not directly responsible but the way this case has been handled by the Department of Education and Science leaves a great deal to be desired.

I hope the Minister of State has answers to my questions. The situation has certainly not been satisfactory to date.

Mr. Gallagher

I was not aware of the details of this matter before now but it is clear from Senator John Paul Phelan's contribution that he is sincere and that his objective is to ensure that something like this does not happen again. I will outline the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding the matter of resource teaching support for the pupil in question.

More than 5,000 applications for special education resources, including one for the pupil in question, were received in the Department of Education and Science between 15 February 2003 and 31 August 2003. Approximately 1,000 of these applications, which were in respect of new pupils who would be beginning school in September 2003, were prioritised and responded to before or soon after the commencement of the school year in September 2003.

Unfortunately, due to the large numbers of applications that were received, the application for the pupil referred to by the Senator, which should have been dealt with as a priority as the child in question was beginning school in September 2003, was not prioritised in the manner outlined. The application submitted by the school for resources to meet this pupil's needs was received in the Department before the deadline of 31 August 2003. This application should have been processed as part of the new entrant batch received in advance of September 2003 and should have been given priority.

However, the application was not seen by the National Educational Psychological Service until November 2003. It recommended 2.5 hours resource teaching per week for the pupil. At that stage a response should have issued to the school sanctioning the 2.5 hours for the pupil. Unfortunately, this did not occur due to the large number of applications that were being dealt with by the Department of Education and Science at that time.

At this stage and having considered the circumstances involved in this case, the Department agreed in March of this year to sanction 2.5 hours resource teaching support for the pupil. Furthermore, due to the long delay in sanction, the Department has also agreed to increase this to five hours per week resource teaching support to the end of the current school year. These additional hours were sanctioned in March with immediate effect.

The Minister for Education and Science has announced the introduction of a revised general allocation system in September of this year and the school will be advised of its allocation under the new system in the near future. This allocation will enable the school attended by the pupil in question to provide for her special educational needs on an ongoing basis. Part of the reasoning behind introducing a general allocation system of resource teaching allocation for children with high incidence special educational needs is to ensure that the type of situation that arose in this case cannot arise again in the future as schools will be automatically resourced to provide for the special educational needs of such children without the necessity of submitting applications with supporting psychological assessments to the Department for consideration.

Senator John Paul Phelan asked why the principal was contacted the day before the question was answered. I do not know the answer but I will try to establish it. He also inquired why the Department denied all knowledge of this matter and why the file was only discovered following a freedom of information request. All I can say is that I am quite sure no official in the Department decided this file would not be processed. It was one of 5,000 files, 1,000 of which were prioritised. It is unfortunate that this happened. The Department has clearly stated that when the file was sent to the NEPS the decision regarding the 2.5 resource teaching hours was approved but, unfortunately, it only kicked in later that year. In March of this year it was increased to five hours. I hope that has compensated in some way for the delay in the processing of this case.

From my knowledge of the system as a public representative and of the officials who work in that area who are under a great deal of pressure, they give a good service. The Senator can take it from me that there is nothing in this matter that is in any way sinister or intentional. The fact that he raised the issue resulted in the file being discovered. We are where we are and we cannot turn back the clock. I hope the additional 2.5 resource teaching hours since March to the end of this year will compensate in some small way.

Mr. J. Phelan

I acknowledge the Minister of State's response. I accept he is not directly responsible but I wish to put on record how disgusted I am with what happened in this case. I appreciate that something happened to the file and it slipped through the net. However, the two years this child has spent in primary education cannot be recovered. It will take more than five hours of resource teaching per week to reverse the damage that has been done, if it is even possible to do so. I accept what the Minister of State said and I hope nothing like this ever happens again.

The Seanad adjourned at 7.35 p.m. until10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 12 May 2005.