Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is with a heavy heart and some distress that I raise the issue of a very talented young student with disabilities who applied through the CAO in good faith for a place in the National College of Art and Design, an institution that is supposed to represent truth and beauty and the highest ethical standards.Unfortunately, despite this student having an amazing portfolio and having exhibited and sold paintings successfully in galleries, despite those qualifications, the supports she would have expected in one of our universities were not evident when she arrived. This student was failed. She did not fail; she was failed. She was proactively failed by the National College of Art and Design in so many ways. She was failed in her first module on the course, despite the fact that the NCAD proclaims on its website to be a champion of diversity and equality. To my mind, however, and based on the information I have become aware of, it is an ableist institution. While our universities would never accept behaviour towards categories of citizens on the basis of sexism, racism or homophobia, they are very proactive in their practice of discriminatory behaviours towards disabled citizens, which is ableism. It is reprehensible.

This student was given a profile of needs assessment by an unqualified and unsupervised person, who forged the student's signature on the document and then circulated it to all the members of staff, even though it is a confidential document-----