Ms Laura O'Mahony:

My husband, Raymond, and I have travelled from Clonakilty, County Cork. We are part of a group of parents who have set up a campaign for a special school in west Cork. We have a six-year-old son who has non-verbal autism and a moderate intellectual disability. We were lucky enough financially to be in a position where we could pay for him to have the diagnosis privately. Otherwise, I do not know when we would have got it. We then got him into a unit in our local town as early as we could and that school was fantastic. It did everything it could, but it just was not a suitable place for our son. His needs are just too complex, so we needed a special school. At the moment, therefore, Max, who is six years old, travels from Clonakilty, through the Jack Lynch Tunnel and through traffic, all the way to the other side of the city, which takes an hour and a half. I apologise for getting emotional about it but it has been really difficult. I do not even know whether he is doing well at the special school, although we know the school is very supportive and is doing its best. Because it is so far away, however, I do not know.

Currently, west Cork has no special school whatsoever, and Cork is geographically unique as the largest county in the country. As the committee will know, west Cork stretches from just west of the city all the way to Mizen Head, so some children must travel for two hours to get to the city because, at the moment, all the special schools are located in the city. We currently know of 15 children who travel to the city from west of Bandon, and we have identified approximately 60 children who would benefit from a special school being in this area. Some of these children spend as little as one hour a day at school, yet they travel huge distances.

Leaving your local area for school means no after-school activities. If you want to have a birthday party, it is unlikely the children in your class, who are probably from the city, are going to come to, say, Schull or Ballydehob. As a result, it impacts on friendships and the children have less time with their siblings. They are exhausted and it impacts on family relationships at home. It means more time sitting, which is detrimental to the health of kids with physical disabilities, and if a child is sick or in trouble, as many committee members will know, the parents will get a phone call to collect the child. My child has a lot of behavioural issues, so that has arisen regularly in the past, although, thank God, we are in a good place at the moment. The parents would have to leave their workplace and travel all the way from wherever they were based in west Cork, and they could have another child who was attending a local school, so there is the question as to what they should do with that child.

Special education is essential to meet the needs of a particular cohort of children. Placing children in the wrong educational settings impacts not only on them but also on other pupils in the class. Inclusion is important but only if it goes well and meets the child's needs. In special classes, teachers are often not trained to support special needs in the way they would be in special schools, and they definitely need more supports. We have spoken to some therapists locally and know there is an increasing number of children with complex needs. Furthermore, the population of west Cork is increasing rapidly. The therapists have told us they are reluctant to give a recommendation for a special school in west Cork unless it is absolutely necessary because they know the child will have to travel all the way to the city, and for some of these children, that is just not going to happen. Instead, they provide a kind of cover-all note stating that if such travel is not suitable, the child can attend a special class, but that is not the appropriate place for the child.

We are failing these children. We are not providing them with an appropriate school place in their local area. This should not be happening.