Ms Margaret Lowndes:

We recognised the need for a special school in the area. It is not just about getting that building open; it is everything else that goes with it. When we campaigned, we wanted trained teachers, SNAs and therapists on site. We asked for that. Teachers are not given sufficient training. Teacher training is the bare minimum when it comes to children with special educational needs. When they go looking for NCSE courses, there are very limited places. We recently discovered that when the first autism class is opened, the school gets some NCSE training programmes. However, there is no training for the second, third and fourth. The trained teacher has to train the other staff which makes no sense to us. Training should be mandatory. About two years ago the North of Ireland was looking to introduce mandatory training for teachers. I am not 100% sure if it has gone through; I do not think it has. Mandatory training should be brought in down here. It is up to teachers as to which side they go, but they need to learn the whole aspect of education.

It is the same with the NCSE which does not seem to think this is urgent. It is a case of open an autism class, give the go-ahead and the teacher is trained two days before they go in or in some cases there is no training until the children are in there.

We have an autism class at the moment that was due to open on 31 August and did not open. It will not open until the first week of October. There are actually children sitting at home, and that teacher is currently training. If she was just trained up and there was continuing professional development, CPD, we feel that would be a better way around it. Teacher training needs to be mandatory. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, and the teacher training colleges need to sit down and discuss having a proper programme in place.