Ms Rebecca Meehan:

A huge issue is the fact that, as the Deputy said, it is a broken system. For it to be in any way fixable is going to take a long time. I will give an example of an autism class I have in Cashel. Six children in the class will go into secondary school in September 2026. They need cognitive assessments and the class has been told it will get two assessments, as two children are being prioritised based on behavioural issues. What about the other four children? We can see that history will repeat itself again and again unless the proper supports are put in place for teachers, SNAs, children and parents. We are going to have children who cannot access what they need and will either get an inappropriate school place or else their parents will have to access the service privately. That will still not guarantee a place will be made available for their child because they do not have a cognitive assessment when they notify the NCSE. That is a huge and an ongoing gap, even in autism classes, to this day and even for children who should be in special schools. There are three children going into St. John's Special School in Dungarvan who are aged ten or over. They should have been in special school since they were four but they have been in autism classes trying to get into special school every year. That is a huge issue.