Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the case of Tommy Dickson. Tommy is a six-year-old who attends junior infants in Gaelscoil na Giúise in Firhouse. He has a very rare, life-limiting mitochondrial disease. As a consequence, he needs assistance to go to the toilet. When he moves around, he is at risk of falling and hurting himself because of co-ordination and balance issues, so he needs assistance and support with that. He suffers from a significant visual impairment so he needs to be supported in the use of technology but also in moving around and in social interactions, and he needs support to ensure that he eats an adequate amount at break and at lunchtime while in school.

All of his clinicians and therapists agree that he needs a full-time SNA and they have all been advocating for him. Unfortunately, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, does not agree. It says the school has to make do with one SNA between Tommy and six other students. It is shocking. He needs this support to be able to function yet the school and the parents are repeatedly told that, no, they have to make do with one SNA between seven. It is scandalous. It is utterly unequal treatment for Tommy in terms of what he needs to be able to perform at school. Will the Taoiseach intervene? Will the Department intervene to avoid the family having to fight this out, to go public, to have me speak about it in the Dáil, to go to the media and to go down the legal route, all to get what Tommy just deserves as a basic right?

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