Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased the Minister of State has come to the House to deal with this matter because it is something she knows a great deal about and she has corresponded with parents in St. Mary's Boys' National School about it. She is welcome to the House and I am delighted that she has taken the time to speak to us.

St. Mary's Boys' National School is a national school on Grotto Avenue in Booterstown. There are about 300 boys in the school and it has demonstrated extraordinary inclusivity in regard to special educational needs, particularly autism. While many schools in the area cannot accommodate children with autism, St. Mary's has gone to great lengths - I pay tribute to Mr. Noel Scully and his team at the school - to include and accommodate those students and to allow them to continue to attend in an inclusive and full way that is not possible in other schools. Unfortunately, however, there is great demand in the area for autism services and autism inclusion facilities. Autism affects boys to a much greater extent than girls, by a factor of four. It is understandable, therefore, that there is much greater demand than there might be in a girls' school or even in a mixed school. There is significant demand and the Minister of State is aware of that too.

What is significant about the project is that there is very strong support in both the school and wider community and in the local parish for a solution that will facilitate the autism services unit, ASU, and there is a ready-made solution that will work. Located immediately next to St. Mary's Boys' National School is the Booterstown parish hall, at the end of Grotto Avenue where the school is located, facing Rock Road with a side entrance that the students have to pass on their way to and from school. It is an adjacent building owned by the Catholic parish of Booterstown. Fr. Gerry Kane has been in touch with the school and is supportive of this and the building is available. We - the students, parents and community - want the Department to purchase that building and to provide it to St. Mary's Boys' National School as a facility and location for an ASU for those who need it. There is room in that building to meet the existing demand.

The beauty of this project is that everybody is for it, as I think the Minister of State is too. The Department sees the reasonable nature of what has been proposed. It is a building right next to the school that is available and I understand the parish is willing to part with it to facilitate the ASU for St. Mary's Boys' National School. The question is whether we can do this in short order. The building is available now and will not interfere with, for example, adjacent community facilities there. With the goodwill of the school community, the local community and, one hopes, the Department, there is a ready-made solution to deal with this issue, which exists throughout the area. I do not believe there is an ASU anywhere in the area from Booterstown to Leopardstown. There is one in Monkstown but there is a serious dearth of facilities for young boys, in particular, in this area. St. Mary's Boys' National School has come forward with a ready-made solution that will be easy to effect. All it requires is a budgetary box-ticking from the Department. I hope that when the Minister of State responds, she will be able to tell us that progress is being made. Parents are frustrated that the matter has been in progress for a long time and want to know when this can happen. It is ready made and requires just a budgetary allocation from the Department to make it happen and create a solution, for both the Department and the school community in Booterstown.