Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I extend our deepest sympathies to the friends, colleagues and family of Garda Kevin Flatley. Garda Flatley lost his life while serving the community to keep us safe. Our thoughts are with all those mourning this terrible loss, his wife Una, and his children Aoife and Erin.

The State is continuing to fail children with additional needs. All over the country there are hundreds of children who do not have a school place or an appropriate school place. The damage this is doing to children, to their development and their well-being is unforgivable. The stress and anxiety this causes families is incalculable. Now a number of families have been forced to take legal action against the State over its failure to provide their children with an education. One mother who was taken a case has an eight-year old child with autism who has never attended school. In a sworn statement, she told the High Court, “The sad truth is that if I never sent [the boy] to school, nobody would know and nobody would care”. The really awful thing is that this mother is right. Children with additional needs do not enjoy an automatic right to education. Every year hundreds of these children fight to get a school place. Their parents must beg, plead and cajole, and ultimately take legal cases to vindicate their rights, all so their children can get a place in a classroom. Despite these efforts, they are often unsuccessful. This relentless battle with the State, which should be there to support these families, is all-consuming, draining and exhausting. It is bringing many parents to the brink.

Successive governments have promised to address this scandal but still children with additional needs are not just failed, they are consciously failed. The State either does not care enough to provide appropriate school places or it lacks the competence to do so. These families are not looking for special treatment. They just want their children to have the same rights as other children in the State. They want them to be able to learn and develop to their maximum potential. They want them to be able to enjoy the routine and activities of a school day. They want them to be able to socialise and make friends with other children. This is all they are asking for. Families with children who have additional needs are fed up with platitudes and they are fed up with broken promises. They want to see action.

Will the Taoiseach tell me whether the State will be fighting these families in the cases now before the courts? Will he give a commitment that every child in this country will have an appropriate school place in September?

See this speech in context