Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Labour Party motion on domestic abuse this afternoon and I look forward to contributing to it. In particular, I am keen to know the Government's view of or attitude to a campaign that is under way, which seems to be justified. I am referring to a register of domestic abuse offenders. This is a project or aspiration of the Do or Die Foundation, headed up by a person from my area. I am keen to hear from the Government on this and it is one of the issues I will be raising.

It is difficult at the moment to raise the plight of schools and of those not well served in terms of provision for their particular needs. Whereas all children are special, there is something disturbing about children with special needs being left in sub-standard conditions. I imagine this is happening throughout the country but I learned recently of a school in Cootehill, the Holy Family School, which has not been included in the Government's five year schools building programme, despite being a priority for years.

I mention it because there are children with special needs in that area being educated in classroom space that includes an adapted storage room, the end of a corridor and part of a home economics room. There are students with varying degrees of physical and intellectual disabilities being taught in classrooms well below the recommended 70 sq. m. In fact, some of the classrooms are as small as 15 sq. m or between 15 sq. m and 28 sq. m. I mention this because children with special needs must be given special treatment. I would welcome an opportunity to hear from the Minister for Education and Skills on the next occasion he is here.

He could sketch out for us to what extent the particular issues of special needs are being prioritised when it is being decided where to allocate resources and whether the existence of a significant number of children with special needs is taken into account in those prioritisations. It is very upsetting for many parents, in particular when their children move through the system and towards leaving school, to discover they may have missed out on facilities long promised.