John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The mind boggles, particularly when we look specifically to Dublin South-West postcodes, which include, in fairness, Dublin 12 and Dublin 24. The bulk of the 65 special classes for students are in Dublin 12 and Dublin 24. There are notable exceptions in Dublin 6W such as Bishop Shanahan National School and Bishop Galvin National School, which are new to the system. I would like to say I had a little involvement in that and very much welcome it. Trojan work is being done at Scoil Mhuire, Ballyboden, which has two units, but all the others are in Dublin 12 and Dublin 24. Again, they are taking a disproportionate number of students.

Going back to the letter, the parent goes on to write that:

We were forced to apply far and wide to schools that put priority on children in their own catchment areas. Preschool has made a massive positive impact on our son and our ability to handle the long days. He's very happy in preschool and it has made a huge difference to him. He's very happy going in every morning and the socialisation aspect is essential for him.

It can be seen, therefore, that this child is doing very well developmentally and for this to be brought to an end will obviously cause a setback and regression to him. As I said, I was contacted not just by his father yesterday but by his grandmother.

This is what I would like the Minister of State to do because clearly, and I would like to say I again played a little part in this, the Government is doing its job in terms of resources. I would like both the Minister, Deputy Foley, and Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to write to all those schools in Dublin 6W and Dublin 16, some of which are very new schools, to ask them what obstacles are in the way of enabling them to provide ASD places for students in those postal codes. If every school in the four postal codes mentioned took an ASD class, we would never be having a debate in this Chamber about the provision of ASD places for children with special needs.

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