Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

I am not sure the Minister of State quite understands the depth of feeling out there in relation to this issue. What the Government, Ministers, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have said and are saying, always with heartfelt commitment and promise, is that children with special needs will get the support, school places and SNAs they need and that they will have all of the services they need. It is repeated all of the time that this is a priority for this Government. However, the reality on the ground is very different. What we are trying to express to the Minister of State is the difficulty for parents and children when those services are not there for them; the disruption, upset and trauma for families; and the potential of the children themselves being stifled because the State is not stepping in to give them the resources they need.

I will specifically talk about issues that have come across my desk in Wicklow. This is not the first time I have raised this with the Minister of State. I am not sure whether there is a policy discrepancy between what the NCSE is actually implementing and what he is being told but, on the ground, things are not being done correctly or implemented properly. A school in Wicklow was told that the Department had sanctioned a special classroom but the NCSE then told the school that it could not have that even though the school had enrolled children at that point. The school is trying to facilitate and support those children when the NCSE is now saying not to call it a special classroom because it is not one formally, even though one had been sanctioned. Will the Minister of State explain how that is happening? How can a school be told in 2024 that a classroom was sanctioned, on the basis of which it offered places to children, only for it to be told that it would actually have to manage it some other way? There is an impact on the school, on the teachers who are trying to work around this and on the children, even though the school is doing absolutely everything it can to prevent the children being impacted.

New Court School, a special school in Bray, does not have a sufficient SNA allocation. There are 16 students who do not have a school bus service because the bus was cancelled, or rather it was not cancelled but that the contract could not be filled. A number of those students are now not able to go to school because their parents have no way of getting them there. It is not just about the places but also about making sure that, when there are places, children have the supports they need and can get to the school. That is the problem. There are also mainstream classes that do not have sufficient SNAs. In Scoil na Coróine Mhuire in Ashford, there are two SNAs for more than 300 students. The school has tried and it has appealed but it is getting nowhere.

I know the Minister of State took up his job relatively recently. I hope he is trying his best. I really ask that he bring the messages we are giving him to the NCSE and get answers because it is consistent, it is happening all the time and it is parents and students who are really feeling the brunt of this.

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