Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

It is the final week of Dáil sittings before the summer recess. When we return, the schools will already have started. The Minister for education previously stated that it was her intention that every child needing special education would have a place come September. Will that commitment be met or will children be left without appropriate school places?

Over the course of the past year, parents of children with additional needs have done incredible campaigning work. Mothers such as those from the Equality in Education campaign who are in the Gallery, have organised public meetings throughout the country. They slept out on two occasions - once outside the Dáil and once outside the Department of education. They organised an impressive march a few weeks ago and put this issue of the incredible injustice of children having their basic right to an education denied. Their core asks are very simple, namely that every child should have an appropriate school place in their local community, that children are not left at home without school places, that parents are not pressured into taking inappropriate mainstream places where their children will not be supported and that children will not be ferried across or out of their counties on a daily basis. We know that 3,275 children with additional needs were notified to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. The Minister has indicated that 92% of those have an offer of a school place or a pathway to a school place. That means 260 children were without any offer. However, those 260 are only the tip of the iceberg. Many of the 3,000 or so who have offers do not actually have school places for September. They have a pathway to school places. In many places, it is a pathway to a classroom that does not yet exist.

Teddy will be five years and nine months old in September. After much struggle, his mother, Adrienne, got a call from the school secretary in St. Canice's in Finglas two weeks ago offering him a place. She was told that the place is subject to a building project. She asked for a timeline on the availability of the place and was told that the school is in discussions. She is not holding her breath in terms of the place being available before Christmas. Lucy, who is five, was offered a place but her mother, who is in the Gallery, was told it will not be available until November.

How many of the 3,000 children to whom I refer will not have places in September? How long will they have to wait? How have the classrooms not been put in place? How many will have to travel outside their local areas? Will all 3,000 get the appropriate supports they need? Some of them have been allocated places by the NCSE, which has instructed schools to expand special classes. They are being promised that additional special needs assistant, SNA, supports will be provided. Will they? The additional 1,600 SNAs announced by the Government have already been allocated. The Government is operating an irrational cap on SNA posts.

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