Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I will start with children with mild general learning difficulties. One class in north Tipperary has, as far as I know, been in existence since the 1970s catering for such children. That school is now getting two extra special classes and that room is being repurposed for the special class, meaning we are losing that space. Parents who I know quite well emailed me today. They have secured a place for their child with Down's syndrome. He does not have an autism diagnosis, meaning he cannot access the new special school in Nenagh or the new special class replacing the mild general learning difficulties class. Instead of going to his local school in Nenagh, in the same area as his siblings, he has to go to a school 42 km away. I am conscious of how much work we need to do to provide classes for children with autism and special classes, and the new special school in Nenagh is very welcome, but we should not rob Peter to pay Paul.

Some schools are coming to me with concerns about the circular that went out recently on the redesignation of schools. They are dealing with mild general learning difficulties and feel they are specialised in an area or are providing education for children for whom it may be their last chance at education. If that is taken from them and they are changed to complex needs only, that would disadvantage one section of children in favour of another with a different need. While I appreciate the work being done on special education, we need to be very careful we are not taking from one sector to provide for another.

For school bus drivers, Bus Éireann's over-70s policy is absolutely ridiculous. The fact they cannot drive children to school on a localised route in the morning and bring them home in the evening, while they could collect those children to drive from north Tipperary to Dublin Zoo and back, is completely contradictory. It is something we need to tackle ahead of September.