Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I commend Sinn Féin on its motion. It is very good. We are probably debating something we should not be debating because there should not be a need for a debate on special education for children, yet we continue to debate it not only in this Chamber but also outside it. The issue may seem abstract when debating it but it is not so abstract when it comes to parents and their children not being provided for in September. It is completely unacceptable that this continues in 2022. History will judge successive Governments to have let down children by not providing the basic right to an education. Two hundred and forty-one children will not have an appropriate place come September. At least 112 children between the ages of one and six are waiting for an appropriate school place. The stress this brings on is incalculable. That the children will not have a place is unacceptable.

As other Deputies have said, many parents come to our constituency offices and tell us their children will have no school places in September. My head drops when that happens. As I have said before, Deputies are the last people to whom parents seeking special educational provision speak. That means the system has failed, and that is just not good enough in 2022.

I have raised with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, the matter of autism spectrum disorder, ASD, places, particularly at secondary school. At present, the ratio between places at primary and secondary levels is 3:1. Therefore, there is a serious shortage of ASD places in secondary schools. In the Leinster area, including Dublin, the ratio is 3:1. Therefore, for every three places at primary level, there is one at second level. This will lead to a major shortage of appropriate places in secondary schools. This is already happening. Some secondary schools are stepping up to the plate and some have reservations about resources, places and so forth. It is important the resources be put in place. I can speak only for the area I represent. I realise there is a major shortage in secondary schools every September. That has to be addressed.

The special education centres are a complete non-runner. The Minister should state they will be completely ruled out. Parents I have been speaking to, although not all, have said they are not a good idea as they almost institutionalise the special education of their children. The section 37A legal process compels schools to make provision for special education. Again, it entails a very arduous, bureaucratic system. Ultimately, schools probably will not be compelled to provide special educational places. We should not have circumstances in which schools must be compelled. If schools were given the resources and adequate provision were made, every one of them would provide special education in the classroom. There is no doubt about that, but there is a barrier between the resources schools want and what the Department of Education can provide.

I do not want to be overly political about this. Sometimes you have to leave your politics behind but this needs to be sorted out.

It should have been sorted out yesterday. I know that, on a personal basis, the Minister of State is embarrassed by this. It is embarrassing that hundreds of children do not have an appropriate place for September, which is not acceptable. Let us leave all the politics behind and we will support the Minister of State, as Opposition Deputies, to finally resolve this issue. This has been decades in the making and successive Governments simply have not worked it out. This is a very wealthy country and there are a lot of resources. For children to be denied an education when they are between five and eight years old is unacceptable. I hope that in the two and a half years left of this Government, if it lasts that long, it can at least address some of the issues that are letting down children.

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