Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Can the witnesses put in context the school lives that children with additional needs lead? There is a tendency to assume that everything is working well and that this July provision debate comes in an extreme circumstance, which is why we are discussing it. Can the witnesses speak to the reality experienced by parents who cannot find a school place? Can they speak to the waiting lists that are there for basic interventions that can often last as long as five years? I have documentation here from constituents of mine, one of whom has a daughter aged six who has been on the waiting list for two years for a basic intervention. She has autism and the letter from the HSE states in black and white that the waiting list for Beechpark services is five years long.

Can the witnesses speak to the fact that many parents go from school to school trying to get a school place and can be and are turned down? Can the witnesses speak to the number of times the Minister has invoked his right under the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 to instruct a school to open a unit? Can the witnesses speak to the fact that because of the constitutional reality, the Department of Education and Skills abdicates its responsibility and puts the onus on parents to find a school place for their children and that special educational needs organisers, SENOs, hand a list of schools to parents and basically abandon them at that point? We have parents who have been to 15, 16, 17 and 18 schools looking for a school place for their children.

Can the witnesses speak to the fact that parents become campaigners when they do not want to be campaigners? They need the State to defend and protect them and to care for them. What happens is that they suffer huge levels of exhaustion because at one point, one is dealing with a challenge in one's family life where someone has a diagnosis that has to be dealt with and learned about and then overnight and at the same time, one becomes a campaigner for services that are not there.