Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State used a lot of statistics in his reply. I am not going to use statistics. I am going to give him the words of a parent in the form of an extract taken from a letter that was sent. This parent had to move her child out to another school. She wrote that her family is being literally ripped apart and that instead of dropping her three children to school, she is now only dropping two of them. She continued by saying that the worst part, however, is that her most vulnerable child, whose main issue is anxiety and regulation, now has to leave an environment that was so familiar to him and travel in a taxi, without his family as security, for 30 minutes to an unknown school. This person then said she is absolutely gutted as a mother because she cannot give her son what he needs. She said he needs Scoil Eoin, his SNA that he has had for two years and the familiarity of the teachers and his classmates. She finished by saying she felt like she had failed him.

I would say to that parent that, no, she has not failed her son at all. The State has failed him. I would like to get some indication from the Minister of State that when the meeting that has been set up takes place, the Minister will be coming with some good news for the school and for parents like this.

See this speech in context