Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many children with special educational needs are still without school places. Planning and forecasting needs to be done to ensure no child is left behind. The Minister of State mentioned my constituency. I was contacted by a parent who attempted to enrol her five-year-old child in her local school, where there are three autism classes, but she was told there is a waiting list and that no places are available. The child's siblings are already in the school, one of whom is availing of one of these classes. The principal told the parent that she should consider homeschooling. She has attempted to enrol her child in other schools in the neighbourhood that have autism classes, however, they are all full and have waiting lists. One school has a waiting list of ten, which means ten children are without a school place. Another parent tried to enrol her child in a secondary school a year in advance but was told there were no places a year ahead.

I have informed the National Council For Special Education, NCSE, about these cases and I hope they can be resolved. We are still five months from the new school year and we do not want to find ourselves in the same position as we were in last year when many children were without school places. I hope that situation can be avoided.

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