Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also join with my colleagues in tributes to Charlie O’Connor. He was a great friend of mine and my family for many years. He is an absolute gentleman. I am delighted to have him as a member of Fianna Fáil. He is a very warm person and he has a lovely family. I wish him all the best in his retirement.

I stand today to mention ASD school places. We are doing great. Huge kudos to the Department because it has opened many schools. It is not for want of trying. However, there are schools, especially in the south part of Dublin, in Dublin 6, 6W and 4, that are just not making the proper efforts to open schools. Even Gaelscoileanna in these areas and around Dublin seem to think they do not have ASD children in their classrooms or in their communities. It is wrong. More needs to be done to ensure we open ASD classes around the country. We especially need to look at second level ASD classes. We are doing okay when it comes to primary ASD classes. However, as night follows day, people go on to second and third level education. We need to ensure we have the proper places in ASD classes in secondary schools around the country. We all need to be talking about opening up ASD classes in secondary schools around the country because it will be a huge issue in three or four years. It will be a crisis. I would appreciate if we could have a debate in this House about ASD school places. We have much work to do. We have started it, but there is still much more to do.