Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

You would want to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the parents of children with additional needs who spoke to us last week. They broke down telling their stories of the failure of the State to provide them with appropriate school places and services. I am supporting parents in my constituency whose children are locked out of education. In area CHO 9 more than 3,000 children are waiting for an initial contact from children's disability services. We are organising a public meeting on that this Thursday.

What is the Taoiseach doing to ensure each child in north Dublin will have access to an appropriate school place by this September and access to assessment of need and proper adequate services from the children's disability services? This is not moving quickly or adequately enough. To give an example, one school opened a special class and had 26 applications for six places. Is this acceptable?

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