James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will shortly have the largest school in the midlands at St. Mary's in Edgeworthstown, County Longford. My concern has always been for the care and well-being of children. My genuine support for improvement of substandard facilities is well recognised across Longford-Westmeath. I have supported staff and services at every possible opportunity, even in the very difficult circumstances arising from Government and HSE cutbacks. Any curtailment of services at the school would be a major threat to the welfare of the community, and I understand the extreme anxiety caused by the notice that the school has received regarding the closure of one of the autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes in September. The parents and teachers were so annoyed at this decision that they held a public meeting on Thursday, 29 May to outline their concerns. On the same day, I received a letter from the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, stating:

There are currently 3 children attending the Early intervention unit in Edgeworthstown and it is my understanding that those children will be leaving the unit at end of this school year. The NCSE has consulted with both the HSE and the local SENO to determine if there are any other children in this area who might require such early intervention support and have concluded that, for now, there are none.

On the night of the meeting called by the school, the principle disputed the facts and put in writing a reply stating there were three children attending the early intervention unit at the school but only two of these children had completed the early intervention programme. The SENO, when visiting the school on 2 May, stated that the third child was to be placed in a junior class in September 2014. There was no consultation with the parent, who wants her child to remain in the preschool class for a second year, as is the practice in such classes. Only two children are ready to move up to formal education.

A parent who lives in Edgeworthstown visited the school on 29 May. Her child was diagnosed with ASD the day before the formal report, which I understand is with the Department, was issued, on 15 June. Another set of parents who have a child in the ASD early intervention class announced publicly at the meeting that their second child had also been diagnosed with ASD and they wanted their child to attend the early intervention class in Edgeworthstown. Another set of parents who visited the school three weeks ago have two children diagnosed with ASD, one of whom receives home tuition but is still eligible to attend the early intervention class in September.

A parent wishes to enrol her child in the early intervention class from September. It had been her intention to enrol her child in a mainstream class, but she has now realised that the early intervention class would be more suitable for her. The child is not yet toilet trained and has feeding difficulties and mainstream schooling is not yet suitable for her education.

Following the closure, between the schools in Edgeworthstown and Killoe there will be 36 ASD places. If the closure goes ahead, there will only be two available places in Edgeworthstown and three in Killoe. However, the NCSE does not take into account the fact that parents may not want to enrol their children in Killoe, as they live in the Edgeworthstown area and want their children to be fully integrated in the community there. Also, it is approximately 20 km from Edgeworthstown to Killoe.

A demand for ASD classes has recurred in St. Mary's. It never went away, but the diagnosis process takes time. Autism is often referred to as the "hidden disability" because those on the autistic spectrum show no significant physical differences from their peers; rather, it is their behaviour that marks them out as being different. The number of children diagnosed with autism is rising. The current rate of autism in Ireland is 1:100.

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