Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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126. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if 170 of the 390 new special needs assistant posts announced on 3 December 2013, were allocated before the end of 2013; when the remaining 220 posts will be allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2699/14]

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Will the Minister tell us when the remaining special needs assistant, SNA, posts will be allocated? He is probably aware of reports of autistic children as young as eight years old being locked in so-called withdrawal rooms for hours without supervision. This is indicative of the consequences of imposing caps on special needs assistant resources.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for his question. The previous Government capped the number of SNA posts at 10,575 in December 2010, with that cap remaining in place until December 2013. The number of pupils in our schools has continued to increase since. In December 2013, this Government agreed to increase the cap on SNAs by 390, increasing by 170 posts to 10,745 at the end of 2013, and by a further 220 posts to 10,965 at the end of 2014. The total number of posts currently allocated by the NCSE is 10,588 posts. The NCSE will decide, based on the number of valid applications received, on how many of the remaining posts need to be allocated to schools to meet pupil care needs.

The additional posts provided will enable the NCSE to continue to allocate support to children who need it in order that they may fully participate in and benefit from their education.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The caps and cuts in the past few years, which were imposed amid rising demand, have forced schools to spread SNA supports more thinly. In 2010, 13,000 children were accessing such supports. The number has risen to 15,000. Although the Government has maintained the funding, the Minister knows support has been thinned out because of the extra demand. A parent from Wexford wrote to me recently stating that parents have lost all faith in the involvement of the Department of Education and Skills, the NCSE and NEPS in ASD units as they regard them to be a powerful cartel working to a mutual agenda. The parents believe this agenda concerns itself with cost saving and a growing ideology that is forcing their children and families further and further to the outskirts of normal society. Reports on the extra use of isolation rooms are frightening. That children are put into these rooms unsupervised from many hours beggars belief in this day and age. Does the Minister not believe so?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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This particular question does not necessarily deal with that issue. However, I am aware that there is a question on today's Order Paper on the matter of isolation rooms, if we get to it. All I can say is that the SNA posts are allocated by the NCSE only where there is a valid application submitted by a school in respect of a child with qualifying needs and where the needs of the child cannot be supported by the existing SNA allocation in the school. On some occasions, but not all, the view of particular schools was that an SNA could facilitate the support services required for a new challenged pupil in addition to an existing pupil. That meant that one SNA was now looking after the needs of two pupils. This was raised at a meeting of my parliamentary party. What occurred was presented by the parent of the original pupil as a 50% reduction in SNA support. There are times when allocation, presentation and perception can mean different things to different people. As far as the school in question was concerned, the SNA support was capable of being shared by two people. I have asked the NCSE to develop a new model for the allocation of resources because the number of SNAs has grown from approximately 2,000 when the system was first introduced to nearly 11,000 now. Such exponential growth simply cannot continue.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Let me return to the issue of isolation rooms. I understand they were funded by the Department of some stage; I do not know how they could have been built otherwise. There are no national guidelines to govern their use. Boards of management are actually making the call on them and, very often, there are no parents associated with the ASD units on the boards of management. Decisions of boards of management, as one might understand, are really dominated by the concern of the school in general and are very often at the expense of children with autism.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I believe there is something seriously wrong. Such rooms are actually being banned in parts of America and Canada at present because they contravene the human rights of children. The Minister should ban their use until he researches what is actually taking place and comes up with a national strategy as to how they should be used, if they are to be used at all.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy's original question was about the number of SNAs. He has raised a new issue that is related on which I do not have a briefing note. I will make inquiries and revert to the Deputy on it.