PARENTS of children who receive special needs assistance have reacted furiously to a 10% cut in teaching support, announced by Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn.
“In March, he stood up and he defended the services. It’s a crazy situation, but with this minister we expect it is going to get worse. The irony of it is nothing has changed.
“Last year they were taking away services and we were fighting to hold onto what we had. Now they are cutting from what we have left”.
Eleanor, who is the vice president of the Special Needs Parents Association, is unlikely to know how the cuts will affect her son until June 20.
“They haven’t even told us the nature of the cuts, it’s psychological torture.
“Some might say it’s only a couple of hours, but a couple of hours is an awful lot to these children, and it’s vital to those with low cognitive ability.
“Are the teachers going to have to pick up the slack?”
She will take part in a protest meeting this month, organised by Richard Boyd Barrett TD.
“I know the money is not there, but there has to be ways of making cuts without hitting the most vulnerable.
“From dealing with the services that are there, you can see overlapping on the administrative side.
“We need to sit down and look at the options, you’re talking about people here, not buildings.
“You saw on last week’s RTE’s Prime Time Investigates how people are being hit by health cuts. Those children are the same children that are being hit by education cuts,” added Eleanor.
“The problems are multifaceted, people with children who have Down Syndrome have had cuts to their care allowance, lost respite hours, lost SNA hours, lost resources in school and therapy.
“It’s a disgrace what’s happening, but the sad thing is it has been happening for years and the new government were aware of it when they were opposition”.
Another parent affected is Yvonne Daly, who has two sons currently receiving special needs assistant resource hours.
“I’m not a bit surprised… I have two lads aged 11 and 13, and it took eight years to get a proper diagnosis and now that I have it, it is being cut”.
Fianna Fail’s Deputy Willie O’Dea, described the decision as crude.
“If you look at the Department of Education there is room for cuts without hitting the most vulnerable.
“I have been inundated with calls from concerned parents and teachers in Limerick who are very worried about this cut, which amounts to an attack on the most vulnerable in our society.
“If a school is not given the most basic of educational resources, which is a teacher, then special needs children will not receive the level of education they require and are entitled to”.
