Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has said he will not reverse the decision to cut four special needs assistants from St Anthony’s Special School in Castlebar. The Minister was approached by Fine Gael deputy John O’Mahony outside the Dáil on Wednesday night, while at the same time a public meeting was being held in the Castlebar school to protest against the proposed cuts.
The school caters for 40 children from the Castlebar area who have a variety of special learning needs ranging from blindness and deafness to cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis, but the pupils will be greatly affected by the cut in SNAs from 13 to nine. Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday Dep O’Mahony said the key issue was that the criteria used for the review of the special needs assistant numbers is the same as what is used for mainstream schools. In an effort to reverse the decision he will ask the Minister to examine immediately the criteria used to review the SNAs in St Anthony’s.
While the decision to make the cuts has not been confirmed yet the school was informed that the cuts are imminent from as early as Easter.
At the public meeting, attended by more than 150 angry protesters, a poignant poster hung on the wall with the hard hitting message, “Rebecca is from Swinford, she’s clinically blind. Minister O’Keeffe, why are you blind to her needs?”
Disgust and disbelief at the cuts were voiced by the large attendance which included public representatives, parents, teachers, SNAs, and members of the public.
Johnny Mee, who is chairman of the board of management, called Minister O’Keeffe “cruel and uncaring” and promised to protest outside the Dáil by himself if these cuts went ahead.
School principal Fiona Byrnes added: “It is the vulnerable and weak, who have no voice in society, who are being attacked.” She said the National Council for Special Education review committee had “cherry picked” which students to assess. She also called on the Minister to visit the school for a day to see the work that is being done by teachers and SNAs.
Currently the school has six classes, five general classes and one for multiply disabled students. Each class has a teacher and two special needs assistants who cater for all the students’ varied needs, while allowing the teacher to get on with teaching. These cuts would leave the school’s staff stretched to beyond their limits, according to the principal.
One SNA, who has been working with a profoundly deaf child for the past three years, said she had become an integral part of the child’s life and her development.
Numerous parents told how well their children have come on and developed beyond their wildest dreams since they entered the school, and how they fear that they will fall back in their development if the cuts go ahead.
Politicians of every political colour attended the meeting and each agreed that the cuts had to be stopped. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is to table a private member’s motion on this issue in the Dáil next week.
Both deputies O’Mahony and Beverley Flynn raised the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday night.
Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser on Thursday morning, principal Byrnes confirmed that another public meeting was due to take place last night (Thursday ) which was to be attended by deputies Flynn and Michael Ring. Minister Dara Calleary is out of the country on Government business but the school expects to meet him on Monday. According to Ms Byrnes a final decision is due next week.
The Cathaoirleach of Westport Town Council, Councillor Myles Staunton, has pledged his full support and the support of the Westport people to the campaign.
