Mr. John Haran:

In the context of autism classes, we were doing two weeks of the summer provision. Just this week I got a phone call from a parent in west Donegal who has a nine-year old child in an ASD class where it is not working out. The parent is looking for a place in our school. That happens all the time. Our school in Donegal has expanded massively in the past five years. That is down to a whole lot of reasons, including the brilliant staff and the great work going on. My door is being knocked down every day with parents looking to get their children in. Special education is so complex and varied. The MGLD schools are brilliant. Why would we want to mess that up for those children who are not as disabled as other children? The fundamental problem is that they are not as disabled, yet they have so many needs and they would be lost in mainstream education. It would just be a disaster.