Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the transition from primary to secondary school. The Minister of State mentioned forward planning. We all have access to the constituency planning database. We can see data on age and health demographics. Do the Departments use that information for forward planning? We can look at it at the constituency level and find out how many children from a certain age group have autism or whatever it is. That would give an indication of what is coming down the road.

I listened to the Minister of State's comments and I welcome that she seems to be very driven and passionate about this issue. She also asked for information to be given to her. If the Chair bears with me, I will be as fast as I can. A mother, Karen, asked me to relate her story so that the Minister of State will get an idea of what parents are going through. Her story is not meant to be in any way aggressive but to show how disappointed and frustrated she is with the system. She told me she has no school for her daughter, Emma, to continue her education into secondary school that is appropriate to her needs. Emma, who is 12 years old, was born with Down's syndrome. She has a mild learning disability diagnosis and is visually impaired. She is in sixth class in the local mainstream school. Emma's mother wrote that she was contacting me in pure frustration and hurt. She said she knew it would be a difficult road accessing a secondary school appropriate for Emma, but she was gobsmacked to learn that the admissions policy for a special school has placed Emma at the bottom of the list of enrolment requirements because she is coming from a mainstream primary school. She was referring to the Cope Foundation's Scoil Bernadette. She said she was open to correction but she could not see anything like this enrolment policy in any other special secondary schools in east Cork or the Cork city area, under which a child meeting the criteria of having a mild intellectual diagnosis was placed last on a list because she was coming from a mainstream school. There are 24 places in Scoil Bernadette. From the feeder schools, 19 have been accepted and one sibling has been accepted from another school. There are 15 applicants from the special school and ten applicants from mainstream schools. There are 24 places and 45 children waiting on that list.

The lady said she thought this was completely discriminatory and a poor reflection of the inclusion and inclusive living for children that we as a society strive for. A family such as hers, who chose to bring their child up in a local community in a local primary school with local children was discriminated against when they tried to apply for a special secondary school because it accepted applications from special schools first. Fear has dictated to many families, she said, and this gave them no option but to place their child in a local primary school for fear of not getting a place in a special school. This is, she said, appalling. She accepted that if a school was oversubscribed, a waiting list would kick in but what stood out for her was that if a child attends a mainstream school he or she does not have any hope of acceptance to the school.

The updated admissions policy was introduced in 2020 in Cork and Ross after the Schools Act of 2018 had been passed. Added to that, the woman contacted two other secondary schools with mild diagnosis criteria in Ballincollig and Rochestown in Cork city. Enrolments in Ballincollig are closed for the next two years and Rochestown has no enrolment for 2022 or 2023. The latter has accepted three children from the 2021-22 waiting list. It had over 24 applicants. The local secondary school in Middleton has been mentioned as an option but it is an ASD unit and Emma has Down's syndrome. The mother cannot see how that might be an appropriate alternative. A plan B was for Emma to repeat sixth class. That would ensure access to the secondary school next year. The mother applied for 2021-22 and she was second on the waiting list. She was then told verbally that Emma was disqualified because she had done eight years in primary school and could not repeat. She challenged this because she knew there had been provision made for this previously but it had been shut down. She asked me to bring this to the Minister's attention.

I know that is a lot to take in but can the Minister of State see the frustration? This child, who attended an integrated school in a town, has been cast aside because of a range of little loopholes. As Deputy Cairns said, she is going from west Cork to Cork city again. The frustration is exacting such a toll on the parents. The approach was not supposed to be nasty by any means but it is heartbreaking to see. I know the family in question.

I raise this case because Emma's mother asked me to raise it but I also want to give the Minister of State the picture. This is only one school area in east Cork which already has massive issues. If I look at my constituency database, I can see this problem will continue for another while. The Minister of State acknowledged that autism and autism-related conditions are on the rise. I cannot understand why we are not planning for them. I accept the Department is planning a large school campus in Carrigtwohill but we have to look at what this is doing to a mother and a 12-year-old girl who has no chance of leaving primary school and entering secondary education in 2022. I would love if the Minister of State could assist me or even take on the case on an individual basis. I heard her say she needs to have the information.

We can accept them. It is not a case of raising it for favouritism. It is raising it because there are another 21 families in this situation this year that cannot get into a school.