Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here in person to discuss this matter with me. It is greatly appreciated.

I rise to speak on behalf of four boys from Dublin's north side whose parents do not have a school place for them in September with the only reason being that these children have autism. I refer the Minister to the report launched today from AsIAm entitled Invisible Children - Survey on School Absence and Withdrawal in Ireland's Autism Community. I believe some representatives from the organisation are in the Public Gallery. Some of the report's findings are quite stark and some of the representations made today were quite upsetting.

It is a survey involving around 300 parents. The findings showed that 35% said that they had applied to anywhere between four and seven different schools while seeking a place for their child. A total of 54% of these parents felt that our lack of school places was the largest barrier for their child in accessing education, supported by a further 18% who said that the chief obstacle was a lack of nearby schools or classes in the local catchment areas. When someone's child gets a diagnosis, what effectively happens is that he or she is handed a sheet of paper with a list of schools on it and told to do his or her best. Some of the schools I spoke to parents about were in places as far away as Drogheda. I will read into the record the names of the four children with whom I am dealing with currently. They are Oliver Lynam, Mason Kelly, James Field, whose mother Alison spoke at the launch today, and Riley O'Keefe. They have no place to go in September with the only reason being that they have autism.

The manner in which we deal with these parents really needs to be investigated and improved. We are giving a list of schools to a parent and telling him or her do his or her best. While some schools will say "Yes", in this case most of them said "No". I know we have the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, which would challenge some of the attitudes displayed or responses given by some of the schools and I want to get the Minister's response to that.

The fall-back position, which the parents do not want because they want their children to go to a school setting, mix with other children and have that engagement, is the potential to home school the children but, again, parents are told to find a home school tutor themselves. Unless we are professionals in the field, none of us is qualified to know what kind of home tutor will benefit our child.

Again, I talk to other parents who are on a very long waiting list to get assessments. Today I spoke to another parent, Mark, about his daughter, Abigail, and how they have tried to get early intervention and have waited for effectively two and a half years to get it.

The Minister knows that once a parent gets a diagnosis, it is as if he or she must start waging a war with a system that should care for and be compassionate to him or her. The parent faces a challenge with this diagnosis and a child he or she loves, cares for and wants to do his or her best for. Simultaneously, the parent automatically becomes a kind of political campaigner, which is not the way it should be.

On behalf of those four children about whom I spoke, can the Minister give me and the parents some assurance that these children will have a school place in September? We need a long-term conversation about how we deal with parents in this situation. It probably falls between the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Health, which is probably part of the difficulty but certainly the shocking experience these parents are going through has really come to light in the past number of months. It is now April and will be May before too long. These four children do not have a school place for September.I am sure there are hundreds of other parents in the same situation, as has been outlined by the report issued today and as has been reported in The Irish Timesas recently as yesterday. I would appreciate the Minister's response.