Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I received an email from the Dublin 12 Campaign 4 Autism Inclusion about today's debate. The group asked me to raise special education provision in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas. They feel they have been forgotten, even though a special needs school, for which they campaigned, opened in Crumlin recently. They say that Dublin 12 still needs autism classes, especially at secondary schools such as Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, Assumption Secondary School and Loreto College. The secondary school on Mourne Road has one class and is opening one more, but this is not enough given the amount of new-build houses and apartments coming on stream in the area. Where will all of these children go to school if they are autistic? Children will have less chance of getting a school place. The campaign group is asking where children who are heading into fifth and sixth class this September will go. It asks that the Department would finish the area's autism classes audit of needs.

On the NCSE, the group has raised the fact that SENOs want to see the need for autism classes and continually ask the campaign to direct parents to them. The problem is that the NCSE does not seem to have a clue where the parents are. The group is making a strong case that there is a need for a database of children who need early intervention classes all the way up to 18-year-olds. The need for autism classes in Dublin 12 is huge. There are still children leaving the area and others coming in from different areas, which makes no sense. All schools should have autism classes. Therapists are much needed in schools and the group has been arguing this for years. Special schools need on-site therapists, as do autism classes in mainstream schools. Autism classes in mainstream schools need access to speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and other therapists. The school inclusion model, SIM, does not work. Schools need a dedicated team that stays in the school and works with children in situ. There are too many children falling through the cracks. The Dublin 12 campaign group has been raising these issues for the past five years and I would like the Minister of State to take them on board. The Minister of State spoke about the forum that is being set up and these parents will need to feed into that.

I also wish to raise an issue which is not directly related to the Minister of State's remit but it is linked. In the Inchicore-Rialto area of Dublin 8, there is no secondary school at all. Lots of planning applications are being submitted for the area. Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council are planning what is called the City Edge project, which is a development stretching from Ballymount, down the Long Mile Road, over to Bluebell and encompassing the OPW site and Inchicore Works. That entire area is going to be developed, with lots of new apartments. The LDA owns a lot of the land or will take it over but there is no secondary school in the area. This is an issue that has to be addressed in the coming period and I just wanted to raise it here today.

See this speech in context