Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)

My question relates specifically to the ask for a new special school in Dublin 1. In response to a recent parliamentary question, which I submitted to the HSE about the number of children's disability network teams, CDNTs, that do not have special schools in their catchment area. We learned that, of the 93 CDNTs across the country, 16 are not in the catchment area of a special school, namely, west Limerick, west Cork, north-west Cork, east-central Cork, north Cork city and Blarney, south Cork city, Thomastown, Clonmel, New Ross, Gorey, mid-Wicklow, south Wicklow, Portarlington, Edenderry, Coolock, Blakestown and the north inner city. It is the north inner city and my own constituency in Dublin 1 in which I have a particular interest.

There are very serious consequences and impacts for those children who are currently attending CDNTs who do not have a special school in their area. We know that most special schools have an enrolment policy which will have a catchment area. Those children outside the catchment area are automatically disadvantaged. The most appalling thing about this is we are pitting kids against one another by virtue of their postcode. There is another horrible reality in Dublin in that many families are living in accommodation that is not suitable and not appropriate to their needs and not necessarily in places where they should be living or that are outside of where they want to be. They are doubly disadvantaged. The other key impact of not having a special school in the CDNT is that children are ending up in inappropriate school places. For a child with autism and co-occurring with a mild intellectual disability, they may be best suited to an autism class but they end up being put into a mainstream class and having to make do there. Alternatively, somebody with moderate autism co-occurring with moderate intellectual disability may end up in an autism class when, really, a special school is what they need. What then happens is we have an enormous stress for the child in terms of his or her ability to learn. We know of parents sitting outside during the school day because their child is not toilet trained and the parent has to come in and help with the toileting. Notwithstanding the brilliant effort of the schools and the teachers and the SNAs in Dublin 1, some of them are not equipped to deal with the level of needs they are currently having to cater for and are responsible for in their schools. The real risk is that when we have children in inappropriate places, they are put on a reduced school day, they may be suspended or, indeed expelled. That is not what we want for these children. My particular interest in Dublin 1 is borne out of the fact I have had so much contact with the mammies - some daddies, but mainly mammies - in the Dublin Central equality in education campaign. I refer to the number of children, both those wanting to start preschool who cannot find a special school place and, even more particularly, the other cohort of children we do not speak enough about, namely, those coming out of the primary school system who need to go into a special school and simply cannot find that place. We know that some special schools across Dublin city and county are discriminating based on age against those children. They are telling those children they are simply too old and prioritising those children who are younger. My plea to the Minister of State is that we need to have a special school in the Dublin 1 area. There is a special school in Dublin 7, An Cosán Community Special School, which is fantastic, but the reality is children in Dublin 1 are not being prioritised for the school in Dublin 7. They need to have their own special school.

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