Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am well aware of the case of Dan Brennan because I was in the European Parliament's Petitions Committee when Dan Brennan made his case there on several occasions. I am from Sligo so I had no political interest in him or what was happening. The Minister talks about no new evidence but he should review the old evidence. As many of the Deputies said, it is the same old line coming from the Department again. There are lots of discrepancies, gaps and unanswered questions. If the Minister reviews that evidence then he will make progress. I add my voice to that.

I have taken enough time from Sooey National School so I had better get back to that. I want to raise the issue of the provision of one or perhaps two autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes in Sooey National School, which is located in County Sligo. It is one of those schools that is a major success because as a rural national school it has grown from 12 pupils in 1998 to 117 in 2023. That is pretty astonishing and it speaks for itself in terms of the excellence of the quality of the teaching and education, and the huge community support. It is in the context of that community support that we see that over two years ago, when a field behind the school became available and was put up for sale, the local community came together and decided to purchase it so that it could be used for community purposes and the school. With the patience of the person who was selling it, that will be paid off over a period of eight years. The point I am making is that this a whole-community effort.

In the meantime, the National Council for Special Education contacted all of the schools in County Sligo and asked them if they could provide ASD classes in their schools by September 2024.

Even though there are no pupils right now in Sooey National School who require this service, nonetheless the school responded to the request and it said it would be very happy to support children with autism from the locality. It immediately drew up an application and sent it to the Department of Education under the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme for a general purpose, GP, room and two autism spectrum disorder, ASD, suites. That application was sent in last February. The principal contacted the Department several times post February but heard nothing back. Last September the special educational needs organiser, SENO, contacted the principal to ask how the new build was progressing because they assumed everything was going ahead but of course nothing was happening. Subsequent to that, several meetings took place and it was made very clear by the SENO that there was a real need for two ASD classes in Sooey. Subsequently, the Department's building unit contacted the school and offered it a modular building. That is all it offered the school. What it told the school to do was to put a mainstream class into the modular building and rearrange a mainstream classroom as a classroom for an ASD class. There was no hall, no ASD suite and no sensory room. In fact, there were no proper facilities at all for autistic children. Subsequently, the board of management looked at the Department's proposal and said it would be a completely unfair to offer children with autism a classroom and nothing else for their full-time education. While the board is willing to manage with a modular unit while an ASD suite is being built, it will not accept it without a further commitment to an ASD suite. I would be very grateful if the Minister of State could give me an update on the position.

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