Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise again for being delayed coming up from Cork this morning. Mr. McKelvey is here in front of me and managed to arrive on time from Cork; I will not be able to use that excuse any longer. I welcome the witnesses. I read their statements last night. I agree with Deputy Ó Ríordáin's Bill and the proposition he presented to us. In a republic everybody should be treated equally. Unfortunately there is inherent discrimination in our enrolment policy. There has to be because one way or another we have to discriminate. It is often the most contentious period of the year for us as public representatives. We get phone calls from parents not understanding and finding it difficult to accept they have been placed on a waiting list or whatever the case might be. It is quite a stressful period.

While I am in agreement with Deputy Ó Ríordáin's Bill I would like to focus on one or two other areas. Dr. Redmond said a while ago that we do not discriminate against Travellers or people from minorities. While that is technically true there is inherent discrimination built into the process. If a child with a special educational need applies to a certain school, he or she might often be told that the school does not have an ASD class. It happens. They might be told that there is an ASD class but it is oversubscribed. The difficulty is that the greater population does not know it is up to the school and the board of management to apply for further ASD classes or whatever the case may be. In a way there is a bit of discrimination there, I find, when certain families or children are told the school just does not have room for them this year or that they will have to wait until the school builds a new class or adds on to the facility. I would appreciate Dr. Redmond's feedback on that.

Mr. McKelvey and I spoke a couple of weeks ago about the issue we are having with twins applying for school places. He mentioned it in his statement today. I spoke with a principal in east Cork last night who has eight sets of twins in her application round this year and only four sets have been accepted. She is hopeful as the competition continues that more will be accepted. There is this strange situation where we have kids travelling, possibly from the same rural village, into a town and going in completely different directions for their schooling. Mr. McKelvey has spoken to me previously but perhaps he could expand on it on the record. It is presenting us with a difficulty in my own area.