Mr. Páiric Clerkin:

We have to trust our admissions process and we have to ask what is happening when that system is not working because every child should be able to get a place within their local community. Yes, there will be times when schools are oversubscribed. A fair system would ensure that the older children would gain access. I am talking about getting into primary school not post-primary where they are transferring. The older children in that case would gain access and the other children would gain access the year after. However, there can be situations when even that system is under pressure and one might need what we call a shared admissions policy or for schools to come together.

There needs to be a process to facilitate that at central level. This system works well when schools are co-operating, but we should look at the admissions process to see why children are not accessing places and whether there is something we need to do around that. We have been arguing for a long number of years that we need a two-year lead-in from a special education point of view.

The last point is in relation to SET-plus or a SET model, because this is crucial. Children who need access to special classes do not come in neat bundles of six. Unfortunately, we have situations where a child cannot access his or her local school because the special class is full. Often, what we find is that those children are from outside the catchment areas because there is no class in their particular schools. The SET-plus model that we are talking about is to help us move to a situation where every child is able to access his or her local school. In a situation where the class is full, we are calling for extra resources to be put in place through the SET model and through the SNA model to ensure that children can go to schools in their local communities until such time as places or new classes are made available.