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

I offer my congratulations to the parents, staff and children of St. Killian's Special School who have successfully campaigned to get HSE funding to hire therapists. I fully agree with the principal, Sue Lenihan, and parents' representative, Eibhlín Gleeson, who have welcomed this short-term solution although they demand a permanent one. The €40,000 will have to be stretched to cover the needs of a school with 104 pupils that used to need a similar sum to cover a school of 70. The €40,000 provided will cover the cost of paying therapists until Christmas and no longer than that. What has been conceded at the end of 2024, therapists for the children, must not be taken away at the start of 2025. If this funding ends up being an 11-week wonder and the State goes back to the position of abandoning these kids, the outcry will be without precedent. What guarantees will the Tánaiste give that he will not abandon these children again?

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