Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that the children are eligible for school transport, but it is not good enough that we are asking a five year old child to get on a bus at 7.30 a.m. so that he or she can be in school for 9 a.m. The child in that instance would be awake for over an hour and a half before they even get to school and begin to learn. That is not an adequate way to learn. That child is not going to do well. He or she is going to end up completely exhausted and will miss days from school. I would ask that the Minister inquire of the NCSE, if it is insisting that there are adequate spaces, whether it will look into provision in Carlow-Kilkenny and tell us why there are so many children who are unable to get a place in an ASD unit. In some cases a place is not available even an hour or an hour and a half away. There have been a large number of cases in the last few months where parents have been told that schools just do not have the space in September. It is now February, and parents do not know where their children will be going to school in September. That is completely unfair. Every other child who does not have an additional need who is starting school will know either this month or next month when they will start school. There will be the usual meetings with the school concerning being a new student and the whole big step of starting school. These other children are simply being left behind because they have an additional need.

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