Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister again for her response on behalf of the school and the community and for her intervention in this regard and ensuring the class remains open. There is also the extra special needs class allocation, which means the pupils in the current preschool early intervention class have a special needs provision.

This has shed light, I suppose, on the overall matter of a lack of SNA provision in particular in the west Cork area, particularly in and around Skibbereen. I do not expect the Minister to know each of these cases individually but I have written to the Minister of State, Deputy Josepha Madigan, about them. I speak about some schools in the Skibbereen area, including Coronea National School and Dreeny National School, which only has 0.5 of an allocation for four children with high needs. There is also Schull National School, which has seven children with very high needs, and St. Joseph's National School in Skibbereen, which has a class with pupils with profound needs. The NCSE is getting this wrong time and again and its approach must change.

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