Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Some weeks ago, a major meeting was held in Dublin 15 in my constituency, about 15 students who have no access to a school placement. There were two Ministers and a Senator from the Government benches. Parents after parent spoke of their concerns that their children were again being left behind and they had to fight for everything. They are weary of fighting for what are their children's rights. I thank the parents and the activists who took time out the other day to meet myself and Deputy Ó Laoghaire. They told us that out of the 22 places that were identified in the Dublin 15 area only one child has been informed that they have a place in September. Others have been told that they will get further information in coming weeks but they have told us that they are deeply worried about the admission policies that may leave them at the bottom of the list when it comes to accessing those special classes. They also do not know what these classes will look like. I have a lot of experience in this area and I stated very clearly at that meeting that the special class is not just tables, chairs, walls, a teacher or an SNA. A special class should be much more and the supports should be much more. There needs to be support and appropriate placement for any particular child. They need the extra resources in those schools or else we are just talking about a school place and that is it. Unfortunately in my experience, many of these students will fall out of the system without that support and end up at home and unable to attend school.

Every parent spoke of their frustration dealing with the system. They simply cannot understand why the NCSE did not properly plan despite numerous warnings that a school placement crisis was looming. We know what we need. The Government needs to publish the data on the true number of children with an appropriate school place in September. The parents told us at the meeting that they know what the information is. We need to bring forward the emergency legislation to expedite the 37A process. We need a clear statement that the segregationist proposal of special education centres will not go ahead. The parents have made it very clear to us that what they are talking about in terms of a hub is a multidisciplinary support hub for children and for parents and not a centre that kids will be just put in and lumped in for their teaching hours and just left there. They need the supports.

We really need to commit. This is not something that has just crept up overnight. It has been there for years and unfortunately it has not been addressed and it does not look like it will be in the near future. I am really worried and those parents are really worried for their children.

See this speech in context