Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

There have been several cases brought to my attention, probably due to the new school year. Has the system become more convoluted? I was speaking to someone in Bus Éireann who told me that the tendering process has become more complicated and agreed that the situation was less than satisfactory. One child with special needs was waiting three months for the paperwork to be done. Management at the school thought it had been sent and the SENO had looked after it. If that parent had kept the child out of school for three months, the welfare board would be calling around.

There seems to be a difficulty with the system itself. I can give the Minister some examples of this. Three months is too long a period to keep a child with special needs out of school.

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