Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State offered to provide numbers. Given that such information was sought in the question, I would welcome some numbers in her final response.

I am aware of one particular child who is in a special junior school, who has applied to five or six different schools. The child does not have a place for September. I know other families whose children are in unsuitable places, who have home tuition and other such arrangements. I am aware that this is an issue in other areas. Given that Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan and other Deputies have similar questions tabled, as things stand, although last year was not as bad as the previous year, it does seem that this year again in Cork we may have an issue. The Minister of State has outlined the forecasting model and the GIS. The Department should be in a position to tell us how many places we have, how many we are missing and what we must do to fill the gap. How many places have we got? Is there a gap? What is the gap? That is the conversation we must have now so that we do not have it in May and June of this year.

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