Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for using Deputy Higgins as an example. She is a Dublin Deputy and I am a Clare Deputy. Our situations are not comparable. Her neighbouring school could be 1 km or 1.5 km up the road, but in Clare - and I am sure it is the same in County Kerry, which the Minister represents – the neighbouring school, certainly in west Clare, could be 10 km or 11 km away. Children and cars are passing each other going to one ASD class because they cannot get into another. The school over the road which wants to open an ASD class has been told it cannot because there is one place left in Kilrush. It might sound fine from a policy point of view but practically it is not working. It becomes a disaster when a five-year-old child is trying to enrol in school, cannot get into the local school and is going 30 minutes up the road.