Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have been contacted by three sets of parents over the last number of weeks. They include John and Marie whose 12 year old child has autism on the moderate to serious autistic spectrum, and has other complex needs, Claire, whose ten year-old child has Down syndrome, profound speech delay and other complex needs, and Melanie whose nine year old child is on the moderate to serious autistic spectrum and has other complex needs. All three children attend St. John of God Special School in Islandbridge in Dublin 8. This school has two classes of six. That is 12 children in total, who are mainly on the autistic spectrum, and are not very mild or mild but are affected profoundly. Three out of the 12 parents have independently come forward. A quarter of the parents at the school who have actively approached me with serious issues about accessing service in the school.

The school is funded by the Department of Education and Skills and run by the St. John of God organisation, in the same grounds as the Menni services building, which is funded by the HSE. Menni services can provide multi-disciplinary services to children who have complex needs. One can literally walk from one building to the other. It is a long walk for these children because they are instead met with serious problems accessing speech therapy. They have problems accessing the swimming pool, and the Taoiseach knows that the pool is for more than just swimming for autistic children. There was no July provision last year and no July provision this year because the application has not been made for the school to get the July provision. There is no health nurse, no occupational therapy or physiotherapy, no access to multi-disciplinary teams and the head principal has been out of school with a long-term illness. The deputy principal has also been in and out of school with illness and is retiring this year. As a direct result, there is no effective management of the school.

The parents have sought to resolve their issues despite all these serious problems. In May last year, they wrote to the Minister for Education and Skills, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and they have written to the Minister of State with responsibility for children and disabilities, Deputy Finian McGrath. People are well aware of the problems. I submitted a question two weeks ago asking the Minister of State if he had been contacted by these parents and what was going to happen. They have been getting the bog standard reply from private secretaries and HSE people. The principal, board of management of the school and chair of the board have also been contacted.

I ask the Taoiseach to intervene directly. It looks like parents have been sent from Billy to Jack. The Departments are not talking to each other and in the meantime parents and children cannot access the services outside school because the children are in the school where those services should be provided. I ask the Taoiseach to intervene in this, or to get someone directly under his charge to intervene and pull the Departments with responsibility for education, children and disabilities, and the Menni services and the school board together to resolve these issues. This has been going on for a long time in this school and it needs to be resolved very quickly.

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