Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The problem is the Government has breached and failed to vindicate their rights. As a result, more than 50 parents will be gathering to sleep out for 24 hours tomorrow. These are parents who are looking after children with special needs and who feel they have to go to the lengths of doing a 24-hour round-the-clock sleep-out protest outside the Department of Education because the Government cannot give them the school places to which they are legally entitled to by right.

Is the Tánaiste going to save them the trouble of that protest and give them the firm commitment they will get the special needs resources, supports and school places to which their children have a right? Or is he going to just ramble on about abstract rights and we will find ourselves, as we did last year, back around with parents racked with anxiety and uncertainty about the well-being of their vulnerable children?

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