Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)

We have a large number of parents in the Gallery this morning who come from brilliant groups like the NIC Side by Side group, FUSS, the ICON FAACT group and Embrace Autism D9.

Many of these are part of the Equality in Education in Dublin Central group. These groups were set up out of sheer desperation because of the lack of health and education services for children. They have provided a lifeline to many parents, who bear the scars and the exhaustion from a health system that fails far too many of their children. A total of 23,816 children in CDNTs across the country have been waiting more than a year for psychology appointments. A total of 22,068 children have been waiting more than a year for speech and language therapy. The list goes on.

These children are being failed by the system and the education system is adding to their torture. Far too many families have to go through the same nonsense every year of applying to 20 or 30 schools. One mother told me she applied to 40 schools over a three-year period to ensure her child could access the constitutional right to an education. Jasmine, who is mother to Lewis, is here this morning. Lewis will be seven this year. He has autism. His mother said she is looking forward to him making his first communion next year, yet he has no school place. She has had 40 refusals. Crystal is also here. Her son Charlie will turn six in August. He has nowhere to go this September. He started mainstream school and, as his mother said, it was the worst year of their lives. He is now in an ASD preschool class and he is thriving but he has nothing for September. I also think of Kyle Mae. She is four and facing into her third year of preschool but, again, she has no prospect of a school place.

We have been pleading for years for a matching process whereby the NCSE would allocate children to an appropriate school place. It is not rocket science. The health system knows about these children, as does the education system, yet far too many parents must blindly apply and take up places that often are not appropriate. At a minimum, a central applications process for special classes and special schools must be rolled out across the country. The Dublin 15 pilot has worked brilliantly. Some 25 places were allocated in 13 schools in one day. We need to see that rolled out, but we understand there has been strong resistance within the Department of Education. That needs to change.

When children finally get into a school, we then see another example of how broken the system is with regard to the lack of SNAs. I am dealing with the school principals of two schools in Dublin 7 who were asked to take on two children with additional needs on the basis that they would get additional SNA support but they got no SNA support. They have been told there is a cap of 23,179 until the end of this year. The NCSE cannot do anything. The schools have been forced to put these children on rolling reduced school days over many weeks. That is simply wrong.

While we rightly focus on the thousands of children with autism-----

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