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

I would appreciate that. I met the NCSE last year and it said there are enough spaces when clearly there are not. I would appreciate it if the Minister would arrange a meeting but I again appeal to him to meet with the parents in Kilkenny so he can see at first hand what they are dealing with.

What I hear is that it is completely up to a board of management to decide it needs an ASD class. What happens in a situation where there is a clear demand and a board of management perhaps does not want to deal with the issue? That is another reality we have to accept, although many people do not want to say that. There are some excellent schools and excellent teachers but some do not want to know about it and do not want to have an ASD class. What happens in that situation? What do we say to the parents coming in to us, desperate because they do not know if their child is going to secondary school in September?

At this time of year, children who do not have an additional need are taking their entrance exams for secondary school but that is not an option for children who need an ASD class because they do not even know if they are going to have a school, let alone an entrance exam. It is not acceptable that we continuously say they can have a different education system. We have created a two-tier education system. I am calling on the Minister to change that, given he is relatively new in the brief and I feel he has a genuine interest in this. Again, I ask that he would meet the parents in Kilkenny and perhaps arrange that parent representatives would speak directly to the NCSE.

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