Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I thank him for being here. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, has to attend a funeral and cannot be here, but she is aware of the issues I am about to raise. I hope there can be action on them.

Danu Community Special School opened in November 2019 under the patronage of Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, DDLETB, in a temporary location in the Hansfield Educate Together Secondary School building. It made do while it was there even though it was on the first floor, which is not ideal for a special school, and did not have its own distinct space. It then moved to what could be its permanent location, at Rath Dara Community College. There it is accommodated in an annexe of an existing school. It is not appropriate accommodation for this special school.

This is the first special school that has been built in 15 years by the Department of Education, the first special school in Dublin 15 and DDLETB's first special school, but it is not what should be. It does not have the purpose-built accommodation tailored to the complex needs of the school that is required and it does not show the ambition these children deserve. It does not fit with the vision we all hoped for when we campaigned for this school. When I use the term "we", I mean the parents and school community in Dublin 15.

Every child needs to be able to reach his or her full potential. I will address three specific areas of concern. The first is that I do not understand why the school was built by the DDLETB rather than through the expertise of the Department of Education for a special school. One can see this in the current accommodation. New schools such as Edmund Rice College, the national school in Palmerstown and Coláiste Pobail Setanta have a dedicated space, base or unit, whatever way one wishes to describe it as, that is tailored to the children and learning life skills.

I visited Danu Community Special School and saw that, because the accommodation is not appropriate for these children, the teachers are burning a lot of energy doing things they should not have to do. The accommodation is not wheelchair accessible and the students do not have an appropriate outdoor sensory space similar to those present at many other schools. There is hoarding around the outdoor space and a lot of noise from traffic. The classrooms are not of a suitable size. There is not enough space to design a flow that accommodates the needs of children. There is supposed to be a living space like a kitchen or a mini-apartment but it is tiny. The school does not have facilities of its own, such as an assembly room or outdoor facilities. It does not even know where the perimeter of its outdoor space is.

A second issue is that I do not believe the special education review committee, SERC, allocations for special schools are sufficient. They are based on primary schools. The school has one special education teacher and two special needs assistants, SNAs, per class. That is the same as a special class. Where is the special status that should be attached to a special school? The principal is in charge of 40 staff but, because there are only six teachers, she does not get the supports she should have for managing 40 people. It is severely restricted. I will address the other issues after the Minister of State replies.