Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think we can all agree that the scenes last year of desperate parents begging and pleading for their child to have access to what is a very basic right, namely, a school place, was utterly disgraceful. In my constituency, parents whose children had autism took to the streets with placards in desperation. Athlone Community College then had an additional class opened to accommodate six children. That does not mean we are not going to have a situation again this year where children are forced to travel outside of their towns, away from their peers, for no other reason than they have a special educational need. This has always been a challenging situation - let us be honest and fair and say that truthfully - but the Department has made that challenging situation almost impossible for parents. Again this year we are seeing parents taking to local radio or national newspapers, desperately pleading for that help for their child. There is one particular man, Damien and his son Evan, who I read about in the newspaper only last week. Based on contact I have had with parents the length and breadth of the country, these are not isolated incidents. This is simply down to a lack of the planning the Minister of State spoke of but it is the most vulnerable children in our society who are paying the price for that.

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