Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for tabling the motion. I call on the Government to withdraw its amendment. Deputy Ó Laoghaire's motion is factual. It calls for immediate action. I have been here for the past seven years and am black and blue from calling for this every year. Once June comes, children and families are pitted against each other and fight teachers in Aldi and Lidl because their children cannot get a place in school. Children with special educational needs are at a significant disadvantage. In her opening statement, the Minister said the Department's policy on educational expertise supports children with additional educational needs being integrated into mainstream education. It is a lie and a mistruth. I know of parents who tried to normalise their children's lives by putting them in primary school, in the mainstream system, with the assistance of teachers, but the problem is that they are ignored when it comes to secondary school because the feeder schools take up the slots. We do not have enough places.

We all have access to constituency databases. I hope the information from the census will come out shortly. The most recent one was in 2016. I can go to any part of my constituency and compile a list of children who have special needs from the information on the census. It includes nearly every demographic, including age, and one can paint a picture of the demand for the next ten years. Deputy Ó Laoghaire's motion calls for the data to be released, with the true figures of how many people cannot get into school.

We have another issue following from that. We cannot get people into schools in their own area and they will not be able to get school transport because it is outside of its remit. Private operators carry children from Cobh to Carrigtwohill. It is paid for privately for parents because their children fall outside the school transport remit.

This requires an instant review. We want to ensure that no child will be without a place for summer 2023. Let us be realistic about it. This creates stress for families and hatred between school principals and parents. As I said in my opening remarks, people are fighting and blaming each other for this in shopping centres because their children cannot get to school. It drives people insane. I appeal to the Minister to do the right thing. I ask her to withdraw the amendment and support Deputy Ó Laoghaire's motion.

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