Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Our children have a constitutional right to an education. Under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, education must be accessible on an all-equal basis with others in the community in which people live. This right is being denied by a lack of appropriate school places. On page 96 of the programme for Government, there is a commitment to ensure that every child with a special educational need has an appropriate school place in line with his or her constitutional right.

We all saw the struggle of the Milne family from Glasnevin, who featured on "Prime Time" last month. When they were first on television in September 2019, the then leader of the Opposition, the current Taoiseach, raised the case in the Dáil. Three years later, the family have thankfully received a school place. This is not good enough. The Government should not have been shamed into acting. Not everyone is lucky enough to make it on to television; many must suffer on in silence.

A recent AsIAm survey revealed that at least 267 children do not have an appropriate school place for this September. There is no doubt that the real figure is much higher. The Department of Education knows the true number of children who require a place and has not taken the necessary action. We need forward planning, not a snail-paced reaction to a crisis that already exists.

The recent proposal that children with special educational needs be segregated and isolated from the school community in special education centres is absolutely unacceptable. I note that my colleague, Deputy Mitchell, asked for clarity on this. I would also appreciate if I could get some clarity on it.

Parents want their children to be part of a school community in a local school. Gone are the days of hiding away our vulnerable citizens, who need our support, behind closed doors. President Higgins, speaking in County Kildare on Tuesday, referred to people being allowed to participate fully in society with dignity. He also spoke of resisting phrases like, "I am putting you in here". He said that people are not parcels or objects. People who need the extra support of special education and their families deserve dignity. It is important that the Government remembers this.

I want to share with the House two emails I received recently, the first of which is from a grandmother. It states:

Can you please help me to get my grandson, Scott, into a school that helps children with autism in Newbridge, County Kildare? Scott is non-verbal and the longer we leave him out of the system it will become harder to teach him the basics of everything. It is terrible that a grandmother has to write to a TD for help when a child's basic entitlements are not there for him. His parents are hitting a brick wall trying to fight to get their son a place in a school that helps children with autism. Scott will be five in December and he is a beautiful child.

The other e-mail I received is from a special needs assistant and reads as follows:

Yesterday, I checked the NCSE website for the SNA allocations for 2022-2023 and realised that my job was gone. In total, we have lost two SNAs from our autism unit. We have bills and mortgages and we should not be subjected to this treatment. It does not happen like this in any other profession. We have families that we need to feed and we call for your urgent help and support in this matter. It is an extremely stressful and unfair system. [Where is the respect for SNAs? That says an awful lot to me.] The most vulnerable children in our school are the ones who will ultimately suffer. This is a huge blow to our special education department here with the knock-on effect of going across the board to all our SEN students.

Those emails I received are a damning indictment of this Government and previous Governments. The system is failing our SNAs and students. Now, the Government is proposing this regressive plan. It is absolutely shameful. This Government needs to get off the stage before it does any more damage if this is how it views this area. I am asking the Minister of State - in fact, I am pleading with her at this point - to approach this in a proper fashion and do something to help these people.

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