Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I echo the compliments to her on the work she has done in this area. She has done a huge amount of work and even the fact we are here to take this legislation today is groundbreaking for special education. When we met the Minister of State last week in the Joint Committee on Autism, one of the major focuses of attention was this legislation, and those of all parties and none are fully supportive of it. I welcome the great support that has come from all of the advocacy groups.

I will be honest and say I am disappointed with the comments from the INTO. As we know, the reason this legislation has been brought here today is because there are children for whom there is no school place next September, which is unacceptable in the 21st century. Every child should be able to be educated with their siblings in their local area and local community. We should not have the situation of people having to travel up to 50 km in rural areas, or of a significant amount of State funding being used to bus people across Dublin city where there are no schools in their local area.

I am fully supportive of this and I say “Well done”. However, there are still a number of issues within special education we need to look at. A substantial number of extra classes are being provided at primary level but are we prepared at secondary level, given the higher number of children who are being diagnosed with autism? In particular, do we have a sufficient number of secondary schools in place for September 2022 and September 2023?

The issue of the July provision encompasses the Minister of State's Department. There is a situation throughout the country where a significant number of special schools are not giving the July provision, which is unacceptable. We may need to bring in legislation so every single special school has the July provision for parents for the summer of 2023. I recently saw a calendar for a special school for next year and already, 12 months out, it does not have summer provision for 2023. That has to be addressed immediately.