I'd agree with such a tax rate. No need for name calling as that is a sign of a lack of cohesive thought.

Anyway, If the resources from this new tax were pumped into the brightest (including 3rd level grads) to help them start companies, that would create jobs, creates income tax, less dole, more resources and then we can help more of the special needs children.

A bit more brain and less heart gets better results for all.

Then why is any business in Ireland?

Its amazing that you haven't yet learned that 'trickle-down' has failed. Also, education is not only about imparting knowledge on how to 'start-up business'. Life is for living and an educatuion helps humans to have a fuller life experience. You have to be the shallowest person posting here.

My daughter is bright and talented. She also needs a Special Needs Assistant.
Unfortunately, she has been cut to 10 hours per week.
when the SNA is there, she is one of the brightest kids in the school, and is popular and witty.
Without her, she gets completely restless, learns nothing, and disrupts the whole class. Cutting her SNA was a false economy.
Luckily she has not been dropped entirely. Not yet anyway.

Thanks for your helpful suggestion.

__________________
If there is a future, it will be green.

Some children should not be in mainstream schooling.
I'm aware of a classroom where a child, with an SNA, dominates the entire day with shouting and assaults. The teacher is ready to explode. The other twenty-something children come second in a very stressful environment.

Everybody loses but its cost-efficient.

Education has to be paid for - therefore we need a strong economy to do this, the only ones with the potential to create a strong economy are the brightest and best (and don't do the lazy reply about corrupt bankers/developers etc).

Why doesn't Ireland produce a Bill Gates, or a Steve Jobs, or the guys that created Google? If we gave our best a chance to do this, thousands of jobs would be created, then we'd have the money to pay for the more social/charitable aspects you desire.

You confuse "shallow" for being economically responsible.

Again - less of the name calling, it shows a lack of intellect if your argument cannot stand up on its own merits.

A parent is hardly going to take the cold/clinical logical decision. Of course your child is the most important thing to you but a leader has to make the decisions they consider the best for a country as a whole.

Children should be put in classes with children of the same level of ability. It is unfair on the slower children if they cannot keep up and unfair on the other children if they are bored from the teacher repeating themselves too much. No doubt most Irish parents think their child is above average in intelligence so tests would need to be done every year as some kids develop at different ages.

Errr...here's a novel idea - how about we spend whatever money is left in the pot on our own special needs children and not splurging on dedicated English language resources teaching the children of immigrants how to refine their conjugations?

I have 2 cousins who are autistic and attend primary school - the SNAs make an invaluable contribution without which it's hard to imagine where they'd be now.

This is absolute nonsense as usual, the brightest and best my ass. And it is not lazy to point out that it was your 'brightest and best' that led us into the mess we are now in. Again your view of the world is so one dimensional that it is getting hard to beleive that you are a humanoid at all or just are so filled with propoganda that you are incapable of seeing the human aspect of things. As a community we set out our educational facilties as a means to provide citizens with the skills both to better understand the world around them and to fully appreciate the experience. This nonsense that we should run people through eduaction with the sole intention that they will be better equiped to exploit their fellow citizens is as shallow as it gets.