Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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This is what I am working through every single week with the NCSE. It is why I am holding weekly meetings to discuss capacity. The NCSE has told me there is capacity for children who have additional needs to find a special school place. They will get places in the coming school year. These are the children who are known to the council. I will be brutally honest in saying that the council may not have all the information. The schools may have more information. That is the loop I want to close by this time next year such that I do not have parents protesting outside these buildings. They should not have to turn up at Dáil Éireann to protest because they do not know whether their children will have a school place in the coming school year. That is the work I am doing.

Do I want to be in this position? I absolutely do not. However, it is not about me; it is about the children and their families and the frustrations they are experiencing. I know it is little comfort to parents who have been told the same for years but I assure them that I want to make sure the NCSE identifies and allocates these school places early in the year, in January or February, not in June or July. That is the work I am doing and the commitment I give to parents across the country. I cannot say I will fix the situation by September. I am not in the space of promising something I cannot deliver. However, I assure the Senator that I feel the frustration and anger of parents and I am working with the NCSE on opening up school places for children for the coming school year.