Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. It is a disgrace that the Opposition has to constantly fight the Government on this issue of special education. It is a monumental and completely avoidable situation that it has to be brought up. The amount of anger out there is absolutely avoidable. I have to say the promises and plans made before the end of the school year were empty promises and shoddy and undeliverable plans. Fantasy special education places, and I mean that, are what we see. There is messing around with numbers so it looks like every child has a place but the reality is they do not. Since August we have seen many families who do not have an appropriate school place for their child.

In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, Clogher Road Community College is a case in point. I raised this earlier in the year in the Chamber. The board and the principal want to open a second autism classroom but they have not been able to get in contact with the Department. Miraculously, the school was sanctioned by the NCSE the following week after my discussion in the Chamber. I spoke with the principal, Lesley Byrne, this week who told me nothing has happened. It is still only sanctioned by the NCSE and the Department has not done anything. It needs to operationalise what will happen. In theory, it is there but in practice and in reality, it is not. They are fantasy special education places.

In Stapolin Educate Together National School in Baldoyle, in the constituency of my colleague Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, there is an absolutely ridiculous scenario. The school has two autism classes and a developmental language class. There are over 50 children on a waiting list for an autism class. Six of those children have letters of eligibility for an autism class from the NCSE but, due to the lack of appropriate places, these children are in mainstream classes rather than an appropriate school place. The school would like to open two more autism classes and a mild general learning disability class but the Department has said no because it is trying to open ones in schools that do not already have them. Can we not have things happening at the same time? We can do two things at the one time.

Another vital piece of the jigsaw is that children and young people need transport to school. In Dublin 12, there is a 16-year-old young person, whom I will not name, who is not able to get to school because the driver is often not available at the very last minute and there is no back-up. It is the same for a primary school child, who is also in Dublin 12. This child cannot get school transport at such short notice. This happened so many times last year that the number of days that young person missed was incredible. If it was a parent, he or she would be involved with the EWO but it was not her fault; it was the fault of the transport. This is fantasy school transport.

I am like a broken record saying that children in this country have a right to an education, not only under our Constitution but also under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is not just an education but an appropriate education. What we are seeing now, however, is the Department of education and the NCSE's fantasy school places while nothing is happening. It is absolutely infuriating. We have to do better. It is about time the plans the Government had for all of these spaces are made a reality because, quite frankly, they have not been.

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