Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank him for being here. We mentioned during our Private Members' business debate the other week that many families are being left in complete distress as a result of what I consider, being kind, the inefficiencies within the NCSE.

A fortnight ago I raised the case of Sonny McElvaney from my constituency with the Minister of State. He is a young boy who has significant additional needs. He has made huge progress, more than anybody would ever have envisaged, largely due to the efforts of his parents, especially his mother. His mother is very proactive. She engaged with the NCSE last November to inform its officials that her child would be attending school, to identify the school of choice and to state categorically the child would not be able to attend school unless he had one-on-one SNA support. That was not her view and she would say she did not like having to come to that view, but it was the view she had received from the professionals who had dealt with Sonny.

She contacted me in June. It is October today and from last November she had been engaged with the NCSE. In June, she told me the NCSE had been in touch with the school and the likely decision was the school would be asked to split the one SNA it currently has between two children and that simply was not possible. I will give an outline of how frustrating this must be for parents because it has been frustrating for me as an elected representative who deals with official bodies all the time. I contacted the NCSE immediately after that. That is going back to 6 June. I indicated there was substantial evidence to say Sonny required one-on-one supervision and an assistant and would need a full-time SNA. I received an acknowledgement from the NCSE. A couple of days later I sent it the occupational therapist, OT, assessment that had been carried out, again stating the need categorically. On 19 June, I had reason to meet NCSE officials and provided additional substantive documentation. I later sent correspondence from the school, with the permission of the other child's parents, that showed that child needed a full-time SNA. On 9 July, I received an email from the NCSE which referred to my previous correspondence. I am sorry; it was on 14 July the NCSE confirmed an appeal had been received and an outcome would issue before the end of July. On 25 July, I asked whether there was any update on that. On 1 August, I got notice from the NCSE that the school's submission would have an outcome likely next month. On 11 August, the family was contacted by a Fine Gael representative, not by the NCSE, to tell them the appeal had been unsuccessful. It took until 12 August for that to be officially notified to the school by the NCSE. Correspondence was ongoing constantly with the NCSE. On 20 August, I sought, on behalf of Sonny's family, an urgent meeting with the NCSE-----

See this speech in context