To clarify, St. Mochta’s school in Clonsilla has 900 to 1,000 students. The management agreed to take on a huge cohort under pressure of school places in Dublin West. Six pupils enrolled in that school have approval from the NCSE for special or autism class provision, but they were not on the list that was sent to the school last Friday. We have a bizarre situation where these parents would not have autism classes in the school that they actually attend. That has to be rectified. We do not know how this happened because at a meeting that was convened the other night, the management of the school told TDs that they had verbal approval from the NCSE that these parents would be facilitated. It makes sense because the classes are not even ready yet. It would make sense to remain where they are and then move in when the classes are ready. There is very little time to raise this. We are now in that situation. The parents would have had legitimate expectations from the NCSE that they would receive a placement in the special classes when they opened, and that was the understanding of the principals. I spoke to parents this morning in Dublin 15 who still do not have school places. One parent has twins and another was campaigning with us last year. We still have a crisis of school places.

Sentiment score: 0.05

I am glad a meeting is taking place today and, hopefully, things can be resolved. However, I would be extremely concerned if other parents were offered these places and would then have to be told they do not have alternatives. It is a real problem situation. The issue is that, according to the school, it did not have sanction for these two classes by the February deadline and, therefore, it only got the sanction in April and there was an agreement that the February deadline would be waived. That is what we have been told. Hopefully, this can be addressed at the meeting. I repeat that it is good that 16 classes are sanctioned for Dublin 15 but while that sounds like a lot, when we take in the population of the area and the age profile, it is not. We need those classes opened as soon as possible. We still have 12 children waiting for Danu places since last year.

Sentiment score: 0.21