Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Mitchell for raising this important issue. I will outline the current position. The Deputy will be aware that the Government is committed to ensuring that all children with special educational needs, including autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post-primary school network. Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes that may draw from a range of appropriate educational interventions, delivered by fully qualified professional teachers with the support of special needs assistants and the appropriate school curriculum.

The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is responsible, through its network of local special educational needs organisers, for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants to schools to support students with special educational needs, including autism. It is also the role of the NCSE to make appropriate arrangements to establish special classes in schools and communities where the need for such classes has been identified. This is a particular issue. Special educational needs organisers engage with schools annually in order to plan for and open new special classes each year to ensure there are sufficient special class placements available at primary and post-primary levels to meet demand in a given area. Special classes within mainstream schools are intended for children who, by virtue of their level of special educational need, cannot reasonably be educated in a mainstream class setting but who can still attend their local school in a special class with a lower pupil-teacher ratio and special needs assistant support.

With regard to the requirement for secondary school places for children with autism in south Dublin, the NCSE set up an additional two special needs classes in the area last year, as the Deputy stated. She made the point that the denomination issue is part of this. The NCSE is actively engaging with all schools in the area to meet the established demand for 2015 and 2016. I am not sure if the Deputy knows whether there is unwillingness on the part of schools because it is sometimes an issue. I have come across it in other parts of the country. The NCSE will continue to monitor the situation and has the capacity to open such new special classes, where necessary. I hope that, with co-operation, the issue can be addressed.

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