To give Deputies a bit background, I was the Minister for Education who introduced special needs assistants to mainstream schools for children with special needs. I do not need lectures from Deputy McDonald in terms of the value, importance and centrality of special needs assistants to children in our schools and the support that they have given. I have watched it grow from almost nothing to close to 25,000 SNAs in our school system by September next. In the past five years alone, the number of special needs assistants has grown by 45%. That is evidence of a continued increase, expansion and investment in the service. I just want to make that point. I accept that the manner in which letters went out and so forth did cause concerns but let us avoid the language of "pulling the rug" and "ripping apart". That is not accurate at all. First, we need to say to all schools that no SNA will be removed from any school during the school year. I hope Deputy McDonald accepts that. No SNA will lose their job because there is a redeployment scheme, and a local panel is being created and so forth. That is a very important point to make as well. I understand fully the stress, difficulty and fear that can develop in terms of the potential of losing services in a given school but equally we have to acknowledge that school is progression. Children move on from one school to another, so it is not plausible that there would not be reviews. One criticism I have is that the reviews should be more regular to make sure that our resource goes to the children most in need. Most people would accept that as rational and the right course of action. Different needs will arise on an annual basis. New children will come into schools and some that did not have a need will develop a need because of the number of children coming into the school in a new year. Over two thirds - 68% - of those that were part of this review of 585 schools will either see no change or an increase in their SNA allocation. The Deputy is correct when she says that approximately 190 schools will see a reduction. The reason I told them to appeal is that there is an appeals mechanism there.
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I have spoken with the Minister, Deputy Naughton; the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan; and the NCSE. They will work through with the schools that have been impacted more severely than others. I do not believe any school should lose six SNAs. I think that was reported last evening.
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I do not believe any school should lose four if there are six.
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I do not believe that, and that is why more regular reviews would be better. They would be more attuned to the needs of the school year, rather than what may happen when capacity has built up and needs have changed. The needs do change. We are bringing a therapy service in schools, and into special schools in particular. We will have a multidisciplinary approach in special schools. We spread that out and mainstream it over time. That is important as well to bring additional disciplines to help children with special needs and additional needs in our schools. The Minister has paused this. We will engage with the NCSE and it will engage with the schools, particularly those schools that have already been subject to the review. The NCSE and its officials will now work with those schools to review the position for them. In my view, any changes would have to be gradual and the impact on the individual schools would have to be factored in in terms of any reviews that would have taken place.
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Ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuil muid ar thaobh na SNAs.
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Tá i bhfad níos mó infheistíochta curtha isteach againn ó thaobh chúrsaí oideachais do leanaí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta acu.
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We are increasing the number of special needs assistants to 25,000 for the school year 2026-27 beginning in September. I will repeat for you that we are increasing, not cutting, the number of special needs assistants for the next school year.
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There will be 25,000. The numbers have gone up by 45% in the last five years.
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Those are not cutbacks; that is expansion. Now I will speak about the reason.
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I spoke yesterday to the Minister, Deputy Foley. We were in County Kerry yesterday. I spoke about schools appealing. Schools are well used to appealing. I do not mean that in any cold way. That is important.
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No, sorry. That is right across the board.
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Sorry, when it comes to any scheme, schools will seek to make some appeals, correctly in my view.
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The making of appeals is a mechanism to deal with some of these issues. I have said it already that no school should lose four SNAs in any one year.
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It depends on the needs of the school. If, for example, three or four children who were benefiting from an SNA in a primary school move onto second level, that can change the need.
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Surely the Deputy is not suggesting-----
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I am not out of touch at all. I am far more in touch than you are.
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I have been working on this all my political life and I will continue to work all my political life on special needs education.
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Surely Deputy McDonald is not saying that every SNA stays in situ forever, irrespective of the need.
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That is what she is saying. That does not make sense either.
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All I am simply saying is that we have expanded the numbers-----
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-----and we want the children who need it most to get the service they require and the SNA supports they require-----
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-----and that is what we are going to do.
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First of all, the Minister for Health has expressed her deep disappointment-----
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-----at the decision of An Coimisiún Pleanála to overturn the position of Dublin City Council and, indeed, its own recommendation from its own planning inspector who recommended that the proposed critical care wing at the Rotunda should go ahead. I would add that it is deeply disappointing. The Minister this morning met with the regional clinical director and also the regional executive officer. The HSE will be meeting with the master of the Rotunda to review the next steps and all the plans pertaining to the Rotunda, the Mater and, of course, Connolly hospital. The Deputy is correct. The interview this morning with the person who objected on behalf of Dublin Civic Trust was interesting. When they were pressed on whether they would object again if that particular dimension - the 2016 strategy - was removed, there was no commitment not to object again. There are no guarantees either way because other factors were taken into account. The issue from a planning perspective is that irrespective of what happens in the long term, the critical care unit is needed now. It is an immediate need for babies who require intensive care of that kind. About 20% of specialised neonatal care is in the Rotunda, so it is a national facility. It is not just a regional facility from that perspective. Huge numbers of women go to the Rotunda, so it is a critical resource for us. There is an issue in terms of the prioritisation of the protection of human life over the heritage considerations. Invariably what tends to happen is that people try to marry, and do the very best they can to harmonise, developments like this. Let us not forget the Rotunda is part of the heritage as well. Are we suggesting it stands still as a building or never moves in any direction or never gets expanded? We recently opened Hampson House. I presume Deputy Bacik is familiar with that outpatient facility near O'Connell Street. It is a fantastic facility. This facilitated and opened up the opportunity to do this development. There were people working where space has now been created for the critical care wing, or part of it anyway. From our perspective, the Minister will work with all involved. The master did seek to engage with people on the ground and with Dublin Civic Trust and others. That was not, to my understanding, taken up at that particular time. In terms of maternity development more generally, there are a number of maternity hospitals in Dublin and it is a fact that over the past 30 years or longer, we have not managed, through institutional and other issues, to get maternity hospitals located in one given site. Holles Street hospital is now moving to St. Vincent's hospital after a long row in here and argy-bargy about this, that and the other, a lot of it in my view not of substance and, quite frankly, it did not put women first. People were more worried about conspiracies in the Vatican, in my view, than women's health but there we are. Cork managed to do it. We should review the Rotunda in terms of what should happen there in the long term as well. That is something the Minister will deal with fairly quickly.
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What entity?
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What entity created by the Government?
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I did not get that bit.
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It is a good catchy soundbite but-----
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-----I interrupted Deputy Bacik to get clarity from her because of the outrageous, disingenuous suggestion that the Government established An Coimisiún Pleanála when the Oireachtas, through legislation, voted for its establishment.
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Deputy Bacik knows that as a legislator and as a person with legal background. It is a creature of the Oireachtas. Yes, the Government proposed reforms but it is a creature of the Oireachtas and Deputy Bacik knows that.
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She would be the very first person calling on a Minister to resign if that Minister tried to interfere in an independent planning process.
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It is utter hypocrisy of Deputy Bacik to call us bystanders because we did not interfere and tell An Comisiún Pleanála that, no matter what its views are, it is to pass that along and rubberstamp it because that is what the Government wants. That is what Deputy Bacik is saying.
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That is what the Deputy is saying.
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All of us have met the Rotunda. All of us support the Rotunda. I have met the master and the people involved, and so has the Minister for Health.
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The clarity is that An Coimisiún Pleanála has made a decision. We now have to deal with that decision and we will.
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I believe this project is in the overwhelming public interest and that there is an overwhelming public benefit. That is why we funded about €16 million into Hampson House to facilitate decanting but also provision of a first-class service now in terms of outpatient facilities, antenatal clinics and all of that. The Government is 100% behind this project but An Coimisiún Pleanála is independent, as all TDs would want. In this House no one has ever suggested it should not be. However, I hope the Deputy will back us now when we bring forward a critical infrastructure Bill. I hope we get the House's agreement that, certainly in health, there are exceptional projects that need to bypass the planning process altogether and just get it done-----
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----- in the interest of public health. Deputy Cairns has summed up the neonatal intensive care unit correctly. I do not argue with her summation of the conditions there. Those who objected to this vital project should have taken up the invitation of the master of the Rotunda. They should have visited the neonatal intensive care unit and they should have then weighed up what they are objecting to. They have their commitments - the civic trust and others - but everybody has to weigh up the pros and cons of any given decision. In my view, in objecting to this facility, they very significantly got it wrong. In terms of previous strategies and recommendations that were made, I do not want to invent new national maternity strategies on a whim. There is a successor to the current one. However, I know the Minister is meeting with the master. The Minister will come back to Government fairly quickly in terms of a statement in respect of how we see this now proceeding. The colocation is there in essence between the Rotunda and the Mater level 4 hospital. There is a blue light corridor there that facilitates urgent transfers and so on. In essence, it is very important we have colocation for women's health. It is absolutely an imperative. There has been a very significant and impressive development of a strong relationship between the Rotunda and the Mater. They work very closely together. As I said, there is a protective blue light corridor to provide adults with acute services when needed. The Minister has already had meetings today on the range of issues involved and how we move this forward. The Minister will be meeting with the master, Professor Sean Daly, shortly. I am working with the Minister and Government. The Minister will come back to Government with proposals in this regard. In my view, we will have to look at all options here to get this critical care wing built at the Rotunda because there is no other immediate prospect or any short- to medium-term prospect of anything else happening, other than the critical wing being established on this site.
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The Deputy has omitted the fact that Dublin City Council approved this planning and the inspector at An Coimisiún Pleanála recommended and approved the decision of Dublin City Council. There was no expectation-----
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Sorry, now. I know it is the job of the Opposition to blame the Government all of the time. An Coimisiún Pleanála took a decision which obviously went against the Dublin City Council decision and the recommendation of the board's own inspector, I am informed.
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There was a split decision as well but that can happen. In fairness, I do not believe in microscopic examination. People make decisions in their own right as officers of An Coimisiún Pleanála. In my view, it is the wrong decision. In my view-----
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Anyone who knows anything about this and sought to know anything about it would know that this critical care wing is needed now. It is not needed in five, ten, 15 or 20 years' time. It is needed now, as Deputy Cairns has articulated, because we are all aware of-----
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Do not be interfering with the Social Democrats' time, please. You tend to want to monopolise the Opposition a lot. I know that but you should not be trying to do it on Leaders' Questions. Anyway, that is-----
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The critical care wing is needed now. An Coimisiún Pleanála knows that. Dublin City Council was clear, that it was okay and it approved it, and so was the inspector.
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As he will be aware, I dealt with it earlier on a previous Leaders' question. It is important to make the point that no SNA is being removed from any school during this school year. Second, no SNA will lose their job. Those are two very important points. There are no cuts to overall special needs assistants' numbers. By September next year, we will have approximately 24,900. That is close to 25,000. We had more than 23,000 coming into this year. The numbers grew by 45% over five years, so it has been expansion. The needs have grown. Demand has grown as well, and it is important to meet that. So far, of the 580 reviews that took place, approximately 1%, it seems to me, of SNA posts nationally have been affected. We have 4,000 schools in our system. Approximately 190 have received letters indicating reductions. Approximately two thirds, or 68%, have either no change or an increase in their SNA allocation. In the context of the school the Deputy referenced, the NCSE will engage with the school. The school should appeal because that is the process. If you feel you have been wronged or whatever, you appeal it. That allows a mechanism to revisit the decision of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to reduce the numbers in a given school. It is important that be done. The Minister has paused the review. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, will engage intensively now to ensure that all the concerns raised - the Deputy has raised some - are fully understood and that we fully support children with additional needs in our schools. That is the objective. Is é sin atá i gceist againn. Tá an méid SNAs ag méadú bliain i ndiaidh bliana, agus is maith an rud é sin. Tá an infheistíocht ag méadú chomh maith. Dar ndóigh, bíonn athruithe ann go rialta, mar a dúirt an Teachta. Tagann athruithe ar an scéal i scoileanna éasgúla agus is é sin an fáth a mbíonn athruithe maidir leis na SNAs agus na scoileanna ina mbeidh siad.
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I said earlier the reviews should be regular to match resources to the needs of children, and new children will come into schools. We have about 4,000 schools with children who leave primary and go into second level, and children develop differently and so on. As the Deputy knows, the SNAs are allocated to the school, so the general number is allocated to the school. Obviously, within the context of the children in the school, additional needs assessments are made. Part of the problem here is there probably has not been a review for several years and the result has been too severe in respect of some schools. As I said earlier, no school should lose six or four in any one year. Again, depending on the size of the school, and with Scoil Aodh Rua, 2.5 could be a significant hit to that school. I do not have the background and specifics. If an assessment is made by the NCSE that a certain school does not require the number of SNAs it had two or three years ago, it should not hit the school with a shock decision and that it is making the call to take out three or four. It should be done much more gradually. That would be our approach, and I have communicated that to the Ministers and they agree with me on that and the NCSE. That is the way to proceed here. The Minister for Education and Youth is going to sit down with the NCSE to work this out. The NCSE and SENOs will then engage with the schools concerned to see what we can do.
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