Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the work he has done on issues I raised last week. The safe pass issue has been resolved, and I thank the Minister for that. I thank him also for his work on July provision because I understand that he has demanded, against the advice of his officials, a more expansive and more inclusive July provision and that might be the reason for the mixed messages in that the Department is saying one thing to advocacy groups, but the Minister is steadfast in demanding a better system. For that, I congratulate him.

I find it difficult sometimes to listen to Deputies in this House who with a straight face can almost bring one to tears with their advocacy for children, yet their political parties at the same time in a different room are advocating for the abolition of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. I want to put on the record of this House that this country has an appalling record on children's rights. As recently as this year we heard of the scandal in Scouting Ireland. The life chance one has is formed by one's childhood. That is the reason we have a Department of Children and Youth Affairs. It is under-resourced and it needs more support. A classic example is the way childcare is way down the list of priorities in the political system.

It is gross hypocrisy for people to come into this House and speak on behalf of children who are losing opportunities in school life and refer to how desperate the situation is for those children and their parents, while at the same time their political parties are trying to manoeuvre into a situation where we can abolish the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Children with special educational needs are poorly served in this Republic because they fall between two Departments. I believe more than 1,400 children in my constituency are on a waiting list for speech and language therapy. I have a letter from a father who received a letter from the HSE telling him the waiting time for the intervention his daughter needs in Beechpark Services is five years. Children with additional educational needs are more likely to suffer unemployment, abuse and discrimination and they are also more likely to end up in addiction. Parents are saying they are exhausted because when they try to advocate for their children no one seems to listen and resources do not seem to be available. They are being forced to be almost full-time campaigners, which they cannot be because they have to be full-time parents. I held a meeting to discuss this issue in my constituency last October. There were several speakers and I expected about 20 people to attend, whereas 150 people showed up. All of them were exhausted.

I appreciate the efforts the Minister is making. Some of the comments made to me concern the acknowledgement that two months in the summer is too long for a child with additional needs to be without some kind of structure, such as the July provision scheme provided in previous years. Given children have been out of the school system for several months, surely a longer school programme or July provision scheme is now required. The Minister might be in a position to address that issue. There are also parents of children due to attend school for the first time in September. They are hoping the scheme could be expanded to include them because it has been difficult to acclimatise children to a school setting in the same way as happened previously.

What happens if a school says "No" to a request from parents? I am aware of a letter sent from the Saplings educational facility, which has, I believe, five schools for children with autism. A letter was sent yesterday to parents stating that due to the non-availability of suitably qualified and experienced full-time staff and the complex needs of pupils, the organisation will not be in a position to provide July provision. This matter again falls between the Minister's Department, the Department of Health and the HSE. It is fair to say that children with additional needs, such as autism and other complex needs, are very poorly served in our education system. They are also poorly served outside of the system.

The idea that we should put children, in a departmental sense, at the bottom of the list of political priorities as people jostle as regards Government formation is an outrageous suggestion. That needs to be stopped right now. The Minister will not admit this, and I know he is fighting an internal battle in this regard, but the approach of the Department is to outsource everything to the school and if the school says "No", there is not much the Department can do. Parents will tell us they get lists of schools from the special education needs organiser, SENO. The SENO will state the child has autism, provide a list of schools that may be applied to and then he or she wishes the parents the best of luck. Parents in my constituency get a list of schools located as far away as Drogheda. I know parents who have applied to school after school, and the schools have all found legitimate, or other, reasons to say "No". I mentioned last week that the Minister, under the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, has the power to intervene and demand a school open a unit. It seems that in this programme for the summer months the Department is again outsourcing its responsibility. If a school says "No" to a request from parents, that is just the way it goes.

I appreciate that the Minister will give more detail on Friday.

As it is now early June and the programme is due to start in July, I would like to give some sense of reassurance to parents that if the Saplings Special Schools organisation to which I referred or another local school says "No", the Department will be in a position to step up and provide this resource for children which we all accept is greatly needed.

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