Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion, which focuses on the challenges that thousands of parents and children throughout the State face all the time. Children with additional needs and their parents have plenty of obstacles to overcome but, in this day and age, access to education should not be one of them, although, unfortunately, it is for many people. I deal with them, as do my colleagues. Education is the foundation of everything. It opens doors, minds and learning. It also encourages future learning. It is the right of every child to have access to education. Unfortunately, not all children are being guaranteed that right. Not all children have the resources they need to achieve all they can in school.

I recently attended the research launch of the sky is the limit project at Corpus Christi school, Moyross. I commend Lindsey Liston, the chairperson of Corpus Christi Family Centre, and all those involved in this brilliant project. The sky is the limit programme has been an initiative since 2015 and is co-ordinated by an assistant psychologist based at the school. The primary aim of the programme is to provide psychological support to Corpus Christi primary school students and members of the surrounding community. It works really well. The Minister would do well to visit the school to meet the great staff and pupils and, importantly, support its ongoing efforts and see whether it, or a version of it, can be rolled out throughout the State, as it clearly works.

Le Chéile National School, on the south side of Limerick city, is a school I have spoken about on a number of occasions here. Senior staff at the school have highlighted time and time again major concerns regarding the absence of supports for children there. The school serves the Southill and Galvone areas of Limerick and has an enrolment of 186 children. According to the Pobal deprivation index, that area is the second most deprived in the whole State, with a label of "extremely disadvantaged". From in-school assessments by the school, it is estimated that 72% of its children have at least one additional need, with almost 40% having two additional needs. I ask the Minister to personally intervene in respect of this school, which has not got the supports it has been promised for years.

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