Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Sure. I am not going to labour on it again because I think I have made my point on that.

On the appropriate school places, again, I have a message from a parent here, who is Bradley's parent. Since the meeting, they are still in the same position as last week. He is still in the same school and not achieving. They got two phone calls from the school saying it cannot meet his needs and it still does not have a place for September. They said that in his school report, it said he did not strive in any area. It is heartbreaking and they would not wish that on any parent and they believe that in an appropriate setting with appropriate supports, Bradley will thrive. His report was written by his deputy principal, who supported him.

What we are talking about here also - and I think it is really important that this is raised - is that it is an appropriate school place where the child will get the appropriate services. This feeds into the second question I want to ask, which is in regard to multidisciplinary teams. I worked in school completion for a good number of years. One of the biggest concerns we had, and why a lot of school places failed, was because the teachers in that school did their absolute best with special classes, and they did absolutely fantastic work but they did not get the support with regard to supporting those students. If we are talking about appropriate school places, it is not just a room. I think we all understand this. It is not just furniture, a lovely room or bean bags. It is getting the appropriate supports from the multidisciplinary teams that are able to go into that school and work with those students and the parents. I have seen it work, where the teachers who do incredible work when they get that extra support to help them support the students. It works absolutely fantastically.

As we go forward, I think there needs to be that model where teachers are supported to support the students, and the students then also get that support from the multidisciplinary teams. It fits into what parents are talking about, which is an appropriate school place for their children.