Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My chief concern regarding children in education is the lack of supports for those going from preschool to primary and from primary to secondary. There is a facility in Carlow that looks after children with special needs and that has children scheduled to attend primary school in September who have never seen a therapist. They have not had an assessment and that is unacceptable. We await a new special educational needs organiser, SENO, for Carlow. We are seeing massive delays in assessments. Some assessments from 2019 are only being done now. Recruitment is a major issue. I see these issues with my own eyes. Last week, I held a public meeting to assist the community to make the submission for the Department’s review on the educational needs of children with special needs. The stories I heard were horrific. I have one case of a child with no access to occupational therapy or speech and language therapy in school. His needs are acute. We cannot give children the correct access to equality of education if their support needs are not being met.

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