Improvement promised in special needs area

The Minister for Education predicted that a new assessment scheme would improve services for children with special needs.

Ms Hanafin said that her Department, in consultation with educational interests, had developed "a weighted model" of teacher allocation for disability categories.

"The revised system will reduce the administrative burden on schools and allow them to concentrate on the delivery of services to pupils with special needs."

She said that psychologists would be able to devote more time to advising teachers on planning for individual children and for whole school provision.

Earlier in the debate the Fine Gael spokeswoman on education, Ms Olwyn Enright, said children who needed to see an educational psychologist had to wait an average of 6½ months.

"During a survey of schools which I carried out earlier this year, the principal of a school for children with special needs told me that some of her pupils had not been assessed for eight to 10 years," she added.

"This is without a doubt a national disgrace and cannot be allowed to continue."

Ms Enright was introducing a Private Member's motion, by Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party, calling for a better deal for children with special needs.

Labour's spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said that children with learning disabilities needed intervention as early as possible.

"Yet more than 4,000 children, already professionally assessed as having a need for intervention, were left all last year sitting on a waiting list for a decision in the Department of Education and Science. Some of them are still waiting," she said.