Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome Aimee Foley and her family to the House today. As other colleagues said, I thank her for her bravery. It is very much appreciated by so many. I will give her and Senator Conway an assurance that the Labour Party and I will work with Aimee on what she asked for today. Support for victims is something on which we all need to work. She can be guaranteed of our support in that. We look forward to dealing with and talking to her over the coming weeks. I thank her very much for joining us today.

I spoke last week, when the Acting Leader previously sat in that chair, about the lack of secondary school places in south Kildare. Thankfully, I have been informed that some work has been done. The Department contacted a number of schools in the area and offered temporary accommodation, which is to be welcomed. I have had ongoing contact with the Minister for Education to try to progress that. I still get calls from worried parents but it is a step forward.

Today, I wish to talk about special classes in particular. Figures received by my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, show that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, sanctioned 20 new special classes at primary level and nine new special classes at post-primary level over the last three years in County Kildare. This compares to a national figure of 600 new special classes sanctioned at primary level, almost 300 new special classes at post-primary level and five new special schools being established over the last three years throughout the State.

The Acting Leader is probably as familiar with this as I am but I receive many calls from parents who are finding it very difficult to sanction and get places for their loved ones. Unfortunately, this has been happening more and more over the last number of weeks. Parents are ringing three, four and five schools in which, unfortunately, there are no special places for their loved ones. Most of these children are coming from primary level into secondary level. That seems to be where the issue is at the moment. As I said, I have been getting more and more calls about this. Perhaps we could have a debate with the Minister of State with responsibility for special education.

I am a member of the all-party Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism, at which we discussed a number of times the lack of places and the problems parents are having. A number of the experts and officials that have appeared before the committee spoke about starting a register with regard to the needs of those with special needs. This is something the committee is discussing and will probably bring forward in its report, which is due in a number of months under the chairmanship of Senator Carrigy. It is a worry for many parents in south Kildare at the moment. I ask that a debate be sanctioned with the Minister of State with responsibility for special education for those parents.

Finally, I want to mention the Life Saving Equipment Bill 2017 that was brought forward by Fianna Fáil colleagues across the House in February of this year. The reason I raise this is that, unfortunately, defibrillators have been stolen from my GAA club, Castlemitchell GFC, and also from St. Joseph's GAA Club just across the border. Thankfully, with the intervention of the gardaí, those have been returned in the past week. This Bill needs to come forward, however. It will have our full support once again, as it did before. A strong message needs to go out to anyone who is thinking of the theft of life-saving equipment. It is simply not good enough. It can destroy lives and potentially cost people their lives. Something needs to be done. I welcome the fact that it has been brought forward. I look forward to supporting it in the future.