I thank Sinn Féin very much for bringing forward this motion. It is a lot of common sense. Anything we can do in this House to make the transition into our formal education system easier for children with disabilities and their families, we should try to do. It would bring certainty and forward planning into that. A year is a very short time. We say a year but, really, applications are made on 1 October to start the following year. Schools close for the summer. The poor principals are still working over that time. I know the structure that has been put in place with 1 October is not without its difficulties. I was contacted by a parent recently who wants to try to get two of her children into a school. She was told that she had missed the deadline of 1 October and that she would not be able to be issued with the letters she got. I did write and, thankfully, that has gone by. The difficulty is that I do not think that message has been communicated directly to special educational needs officers, SENOs, or to those on the ground or wherever it needs to be communicated because that parent was told "No". She was told no because she was late, but I spoke to the Minister for State and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who assured me that of course people get diagnoses and things later and so they can apply later. We need to remember that. This motion would mean it could be anticipated two years in advance. If a child is in an early childhood education setting, they already know what their needs are if they have already got their diagnosis. Two years in advance would, therefore, be fantastic for those children. For the children I am talking about, however, that should have been communicated. That woman should not have had to contact her local TD to find out why the application was not accepted. The difficulty is that we are still hearing from families whose children do not have school place. I know the Minister of State is trying his best but, unfortunately, that is not translating into actual school places. There were a number of children as of 1 October who did not have a school place at all. I am glad to see that one young person whose parents met the Minister of State the last time we were talking about this in the House did start school this week, which I am delighted about. I will not name her because I do not have consent from her parents to say that. However, I did see on Instagram that she has started school, so I am delighted for her. However, there are still a number of young people who do not have a school place because a school building is not ready. If we knew two years in advance the number of children who were going to be applying to X school and whatever else, that would be plenty of time to build those buildings. As we all know, buildings do not pop up overnight. If that 1 October deadline was brought back a year, that would give building and forward planning and all that enough time so we would not be in this situation. With regard to looking at parents and the pressures they are under, I reiterate that anything we can do to alleviate their struggles is what we should be doing. There are far too many young people who are struggling. For those children who do not have a school place, the amount of advocacy that their parents have to do on top of the care needs they have for their children puts enormous pressure on them. We need to be cognisant of the fact that nobody should have to contact their local TD to get their child into a school. I am shocked by it. I am a first-time TD. I am shocked that people have to resort to that and that they cannot, like every other child in our system, apply to a school, go in, fill out the form, whether it is online or whichever way it is done, and get a school place. That should be happening for children with additional needs but, unfortunately, it is not. There is an issue with the common application system as well. I am uncertain. I know there are pilots and things like that going on. It is really important that we further that as far as we can and as quickly as we can. I want to give an example of schools being sanctioned but nothing happening. I mentioned several times previously Clogher Road Community College in my own constituency, which was sanctioned for a second classroom yet there is nothing there. If we had two years beforehand known exactly what was going on, that would already be built. It takes time to build those facilities. I do not want to take up too much time because it is late in the day and the points have been made. It is a very practical proposal. I understand the reasons the Minister of State does not want to take them on board, and I accept that he has constraints in his role. Really, I hope that next year when we are here, there will not be one person as of 16 October 2026 who does not a have school place because the school is not built, the room is not sanctioned or the staff are not trained. On that point, if schools knew two years in advance that there were a number of children coming, they would have the opportunity for continuing professional development, CPD, for those staff members and to be able to recruit people who are going to work in those classes. We are putting schools under enormous pressure in that time period. They are trying to plan for next year in the year they are in. Every single day in school is a busy day, as we all know. If there were a little bit more time and support given for that, it would be better.

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