Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What is happening with the NCSE and the Department is typical. Is there any joined-up thinking? St. Michael's Junior Boys School has been offering to open a class for the past two years but the NCSE has not approved it so far. It is imperative this be provided in a town the size of Tipperary, where five national schools are available and where a school has offered to accommodate them. I visited that school over the Easter holidays and met the principal. The Minister of State indicated in his reply that there is plenty of space within the school. If he saw the conditions in which teachers are trying to give special education, in a tiny room with four or five teachers boxed off with individual students, it is not fit for any more than one class, or two at most. The conditions they are trying to work in are terrible. A town the size of Tipperary needs this provision and the school is offering to provide it, so it should be helped.

As for the schools in Burncourt and Newcastle, I cannot believe the reply I got because they had approval. I do not understand, quite frankly, the Minister of State's response about the school in Newcastle in particular. He stated it has planning and that there is to be further engagement with the Department. We need these for September. There has been approval in the case of the Newcastle school since 2017. It is just not acceptable.

I am disappointed these two Topical Issues have been bundled together because we need a teasing-out of these problems at a more detailed level.

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