Ms Cliodhna O'Neill:

It is terrible to hear when a child has an experience like that. That is not the experience we want any child to have. It is what we are trying to prevent by having this comprehensive strategy. That absolutely should not happen. What can we do about it? One thing springs to mind when talking about any school not providing a place for a child. The committee will be aware of the programme that is in place whereby schools are compelled to accept children with special educational needs. We have a similar provision in the legislation for TESS and we have used it. TESS can compel the school to accept a child. That has been used where a place is not available but we believe that there is space in the school. Nobody wants to get to that point because obviously schools should be accepting children where there is room in the school and so on. However, that can be and has been done. I will be happy to talk to the Senator offline about any particular case.