Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

The report shows very clearly that the Government has lost control of special education and it is families and children who are paying the price. Instead of support, they are met with silence. Instead of certainty, they are met with delays. Parents in schools are being forced to fight for basic entitlements and children with additional needs are being left in limbo.

In Waterford alone, seven schools have contacted my office in the past three months. One had funding approved and then refused with no explanation. Another submitted a SENO report for increased support, which was ignored. One school is still waiting on a design team to make contact about a special class meant to open this September. Emails are being sent weekly. I have raised these with the Department and the Taoiseach on the floor of the Dáil. The schools are raising them repeatedly, but are getting no response. The anxiety for parents is overwhelming. It is July now and families still do not know if their child will have a school space when September comes. Right now in Waterford, children with special educational needs still do not know if they will have that school space in September. Parents are being told they will hear in quarter 4, which runs from October to December but school starts in September. St. John's Special School in Dungarvan is doing everything asked of it, but the Government still has not delivered the classrooms or supports.

This crisis did not come from nowhere. The Government ignored the warning signs and acted too late. It took parents marching on the streets and sleeping outside this building and Teachtaí Dála from all parties and none raising it on the floor of the Dáil for the Government to pay attention. Families need certainty and children need places. Action is needed now. It is not just mismanagement but a systemic failure and it did not happen overnight. Demand has been growing steadily for years. All the statistics, evidence and feedback show that. The Government should have known that this was coming but it failed to plan, build or deliver.

What followed the protests and the activism by parents, who should not have to take to the streets to fight for a school space for their kids, was a flurry of announcements before the Easter break. The problem has not gone away and those announcements have not solved it. The work has not been done or it has not been done quickly enough. There is a real fear among parents that, come September, their children will be at home or in overcrowded or inappropriate classroom settings. Parents are telling us that they do not want spin, they want answers, delivery and the proof of that delivery come September.

While this review has been a useful exercise and the report is welcome, schools do not want reports. They want resources. They are telling us what they want. The Government must take responsibility and heed what is in the report. It must also heed what parents, schools and my colleagues are telling it. It must deliver the classrooms, confirm the placements and start treating this for what it is - a crisis, not a communications exercise.

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