Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the Deputy’s commitment to this area, along with Senator Carrigy. As we know. children have a right to an education under the Constitution and it is my job to vindicate that right for them. The first thing we have to do is to find them a special class place, or should I say an appropriate placement, whether a special class place in mainstream or a special school. The second thing that is looked at is the location. Obviously, in an ideal scenario, a child with additional needs, or any child for that matter, would attend a school in their locality. As has happened in the past and as continues to happen, however, that has not been possible for practical reasons, for capacity reasons and for other legitimate reasons that have been offered to us. Nevertheless, we are endeavouring to make sure that children have a place in their area.

Although parents may not have been told as yet by the National Council for Special Education, there is a reason for that, and it is that there is still ongoing engagement with some of the schools. They are sensitive, confidential discussions and we do not want to do something that would upset that in any way. It sometimes takes a radical shift for a school to make that jump and we want to try to nurture that relationship and bring the school with us. Again, to go back to section 37, I will use it where I have to, but in circumstances where the schools are collaborating and will open the special classes, we should give them the space to do that. I hope the parents will be told in early course when their child has a place because, obviously, they need to plan for September and to make sure they have those places in good time.

The short, medium and long-term planning is undertaken at a national and regional level. It is based on projected future population demographics and the average percentage of the schoolgoing population requiring special education places. That is a sort of general rule for how this is looked at but there will always be children who, for whatever reason, may have moved from a special class to mainstream, moved from mainstream to a special school or moved to a completely different locality, and it can be difficult to anticipate those sorts of circumstances. We need to allow some room for those types of situations.

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