Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I thank the Minister of State for taking this on behalf of the Minister for Education today. I am very conscious that there has been a lot of attention this week on the Department of Education's failure to properly plan for secondary school places in certain areas, in greater Dublin, Kildare, and Wicklow. We have a long-running issue regarding the massive shortage of special school places and special class places right across the country. We had the damning report from the Ombudsman for Children in 2022.The report describes a Department of Education that actually has the information with regard to the number of children who need places, yet despite this is responding to rather than having a concerted effort to plan for the children who we know will need special needs education over future years. I am also conscious that in November of last year, the Minister for Education said that over the next three to five years all post-primary schools will be required to provide special classes. What about the children who need special school classes or places now? In particular, what are the Department and the National Council for Special Education doing to match the current demand for special classes and special school places with the places that are actually available?

Currently the system is not working. Many parents of children who have additional needs are applying to 15, 20 or more schools in a desperate bid to find a place for their child. Every time, they have to provide an original birth certificate. That is €20 a pop. When it turns out that they do not get a place, many of them turn to their SENOs because they have had a long-running relationship with them. Many SENOs tell them to just keep applying and to appeal the places they did not get. That is a nonsense. Parents are having to blindly navigate a system and there is no proper system in place to match where there is demand for places and where there is available supply. At the heart of this are families, parents who already have to navigate enormous challenges such as a fight to get assessment for their child. We know there are thousands of children out there waiting for an assessment. They have another battle to get the right therapies and make incredible efforts to shield their children from those stresses of trying to find services. Overall that is an enormous amount of emotional wear and tear in trying to do the very best for their child. I know there is some excellent work being done by the NCSE and by some SENOs on the ground but there is no consistency. Parents and their children are bearing the brunt of a dysfunctional system.

These questions have been asked before. We know the Department of Education issues a standard reply that the local SENO should offer tailored guidance and provide further information on suitable class vacancies to the student's parents but in many instances we know this is not happening. How do we have a situation of families having to go the effort of applying to 20 plus schools? I know that expanding the number of special school places and special class places is not easy. There are challenges there. Really what I am asking about here is the low-hanging fruit, ensuring there is a real-time system of matching parents who need to find a place for their children for this September with the available places that happen to be in the greater Dublin area. These children are eligible for the school transport scheme. It is far from ideal that they have to travel far from their communities but still that scheme is there and they can travel. The reality is that parents are in the dark and do not know who to apply to.

I think in particular of one child, Naoise Ó Faoláin, who was attending a local school, and has had to travel across the city to Ballsbridge for the last number of years. His school is not a feeder school for any school. He is left in complete limbo. He cannot get a place in the area where he lives and the school he is attending is not a feeder school for anywhere in the city. His parents are scrambling to find a place for their child for this September and have no place. He is one of many thousands of children across this country. We are asking for the low-hanging fruit, for a system of matching to be put in place while the bigger challenge is tackled of ensuring there are enough special school places and special class places being rolled out.