Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue again. I emphasise that the Government is committed to ensuring that every child with special educational needs has access to an education. One child who does not have a school place is one child too many. We fundamentally believe that our most vulnerable children in society should be prioritised. That is why the Government is introducing new legislation this week.

The new Bill was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday and it will ensure that adequate provision of special educational needs placements is available for the coming year. We have school placements for probably over 1 million children - those who have special needs and those who do not - this year in September, but there is a particular issue with approximately 100 children in the Dublin area for whom we do not have a place. We are determined to make sure that a place is made available, and not at the last moment in late August or September. We want to make sure that parents know they have a place for their child in the coming weeks. That is the timeline we are working towards. The new process will allow a ministerial direction to be served on a school within six to eight weeks of receiving a report from the NCSE setting out its opinion that there are insufficient schools in a certain area. Of course, we will endeavour to make sure that happens far more quickly.

With regard to Deputy Ó Ríordáin's Bill, we very much welcome it as an important contribution to the debate on these issues. I welcome the fact that the Labour Party is putting forward solutions. It was discussed in the Cabinet during the week and the Government decided not to oppose it. However, we are essentially doing what is proposed in it by developing our autism innovation strategy. Work on that is very much advanced.

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