James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for allowing me to go ahead. I am doing clinics in north Country Kildare later, so I need to progress matters. I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this Topical Issue. I know it is a topic of great interest to her, and she has given great attention to it in her Ministry, along with her colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. The Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, contacted me today to say that she is also working on it. In any event, the issue is the provision of autism spectrum disorder, ASD, education in my constituency of Kildare North. I have been contacted about it, and it is a growing trend. We know that school places are an issue in every constituency, not least a growing constituency like Kildare North, which is a commuter belt constituency, but what is happening is that children with additional or special needs who need an ASD place are being denied or refused a place in their first year of application. They go back around again and hope and pray that they will be accommodated the next year. In some cases, that is not possible the following September, and now we have children of six years of age and over who are not yet in school. They are being held back on the hope that something will come good, and it has not happened. There is always a difficulty in getting school places, but the situation around getting school places for children with special needs is even more chronic because there are only so many places to go around, and there is an increasing number of children who need to use them.

I have been directly approached on this issue by many parents. I will give a sample of some of the points that have been put to me. The national school in Sallins, unfortunately, has no ASD places at the moment. There are none at all, even if we were to try to make some available. The principal and staff are doing their very best, but they just do not have the places there, or the unit - full stop. The national school in Prosperous has three ASD classrooms, all of which are full. That is for a population of 2,500. Naas, the county town and the largest town in the constituency and the county, has a population of 22,000. I think that will be 30,000 when the census figures come out. In any event, it is the county town. I am told that there are three ASD classrooms in the national school in Naas. There may be one or two more than that, but it is certainly not anywhere near what is needed. We all know that early intervention is vital. We all know the earlier the intervention, the better the outcome. Parents are at their wits' end. They are doing their very best to provide for their children.

It has been put to me, and I think it is very reasonable, that the children's right to education is protected under the Constitution.

As one parent put to me, however, over the past two years, they have had to fight relentlessly for a child's basic constitutional rights to education, health, equality and integration. They really are up against it. One parent told me they are now driving a 100 km round trip every day because their child was accepted into an ASD place in Lacken, which is in County Wicklow. They are crossing a county boundary and travelling some distance. It is not one of these schools that is two miles over the border. It is a 100 km round trip each day to bring this child to an ASD unit in Lacken because the principal of that school was very generous and flexible and was able to accommodate the child. That is just one example. That child really should be attending a unit in Naas or Sallins, which are far closer to his home. Parents are, as always, being superheroes and doing everything they possibly can, including making 100 km round trips and prevailing upon people like me, the Minister of State and all of us in these Houses to make something happen. Without the basic provision, however, 2 plus 2 cannot equal 4. It is chronic. Children are being delayed and denied and they are ageing without the care. I do not want to come back to the parents of other four- five- or six-year-olds and explain to them again this September why they do not have a place. I am hoping the Minister of State has some good news for me.

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