Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today and beginning our work. I thank Mr. Kearney for his statement. It does not reflect the experience I have with parents in my community and, indeed, other communities who have come in here to speak with members. Parents identify a significant continual uphill struggle as they seek to access early intervention and school places for their children, retain school places, get appropriate education programmes developed in a consistent way across schools and get SNA access consistently as the roles and responsibilities of SNAs change. The list goes on and on from a parent's perspective. The services are not being delivered well at present.

I have a number of specific questions for the witnesses with regard to, for example, early intervention in my own community. There is an early intervention class in Ballyowen Meadows Special School in Loughlinstown. Representatives from the school told me they were in touch with the NCSE to offer a second early intervention class to the students of my area and beyond and the NCSE has not been back in touch with them.

This early intervention class is badly needed, according to the parents in my area. That is a question for the NCSE.

I note that in his statement, when describing the teacher training programme, Mr. Kearney said, "Teachers universally comment on the invaluable information they gain by attending these courses." That is too self-congratulatory. Teachers are telling me is that there is not enough access to picture exchange communication system, PECS, and treatment and education of autistic and related communications handicapped children, TEACCH, courses, and that they have insufficient access to ongoing training. It is not enough. I am trying to be brief because I want to give Mr. Kearney an opportunity to respond.

The response from the special schools is that the equipment needed for occupational therapy, OT, such as compression vests, and furniture grant forms are hard to find and the system is not clear. The HSE asks them to request it from the NCSE and it is not clear how and where to apply, and whether the HSE or the NCSE is supposed to provide it. It is unclear to the schools. If it is unclear to the schools and we have to ask about it here today, it is an important issue that needs to be followed up.

School places are the subject of much discussion. I have had two parents contact me in the past couple of days about a sense that they are being managed out of the school place that they currently have and that the school cannot be sure it has the resources for their child next year. This is the sort of language they are hearing. At a stage where a child is in fifth class and going into sixth class, they cannot be sure. Can Mr. Kearney imagine how disruptive that is for that family, and how stressful it is for the parents of that child who has been settled well and who has in many respects been settled better than other children without neurodiverse needs? It is a concern. It is all very well having a place for a while, but I refer to this sense of being managed out and not exactly knowing why, perhaps not having had the communication over time.

There is a range of different issues here. I suppose I am reflecting the considerable frustration that parents of children with autism have in the service delivery that is being provided to them. Quite apart from the OT and the speech and language therapy that they are not getting, this is the experience in schools, even at present. It is about all of these nuanced issues. It is about being managed out. It is about the NCSE giving a list of schools to parents and sending them off to call all the full schools and beg them to take their child with autism. In some cases, I have had parents telling me that they are pretending the child is not as autistic as he or she is or that the child does not have the difficulties that he or she has - I am using their language now, not mine - to try to access and secure a place. What is the response of the NCSE when a place breaks down and when there is that sense of being managed out? I will let Mr. Kearney respond to that. I appreciate I have given him a lot of information there.