Ms Carmel Nic Airt:

It has nothing to do with politics. The fact of the matter is the children in that unit come into school. The only criteria we have for the early intervention unit is that the children, insofar as possible, are toilet trained. We have children who are not toilet-trained in school and they are in a cúlra agus suíomh lán-Ghaeilge from the moment they get their diagnosis, which happens in or around the of age of two and half or three, and they are there until they are 13. Then they have to leave and go somewhere that is single-sex in many cases, in a language they have never been used to hearing around them, and in big crowds, and for these children it is a huge drawback.