I thank the Minister for taking this. When we talk about finding an appropriate place for children, particularly those with special needs and challenging needs, it is a constant battle for those parents. It is a constant battle even at times for elected representatives who are contacted in relation to this, whether it is contacting the special educational needs organiser, SENO, contacting schools individually or even in instances when we have to bring it to the floor of Leinster House. Obviously, I have made the Minister of State aware of some of these cases and if we are lucky enough to meet afterwards and deal with this, unfortunately, there will be more names I have to add to that list. I will use these as examples. Again, we are not only talking about children going from primary into secondary school where the roadmap should be a lot clearer and straightforward on the basis that they are not coming from Mars. They are already in the system. We also suffer from the circumstance where a child is probably put in an inappropriate place and that may fall apart, and then they are left with no school place whatsoever. We are talking about cases where the educational welfare officer, EWO, is checking why the child is not at school and realises there is an issue. There is then no pressure on the parent from the point of view that the child is not at school, yet there is no solution. That is not taking away from the work done by SENOs and EWOs, but we need a far better system to actually deliver. I am going to use a couple of examples. One is an eight-year-old named Hollybelle from Dundalk who has Down syndrome and an autism diagnosis. At this point in time, she has mobility issues and is non-verbal, so I am not taking away from the complexity of the case. She was given a special class within a school. That fell apart and now, months on, she does not have a place. Unfortunately, there has been a huge number of representations made by her mother over and back, particularly with the National Council For Special Education, NCSE, which I have contacted also. However, we are not in a place that we have a solution. Another example is Tristan, who is a 12-year-old from Dundalk. The recommendation is for a special school or special class catering to autism spectrum disorder, ASD. I could talk about the multiple representations this mother has made to special schools and to schools with units and, in fairness, others and I have been in contact with all the services and there have been parliamentary questions placed. In some cases, it is schools that have not necessarily had their requisite ASD places or classes commissioned. Nonetheless, the Minister of State can imagine the pressure that these parents are under. I am dealing with a young boy of 12 years old from Dundalk who is on the autism spectrum and there is no place whatsoever. His father has been in and out of my office and is under severe pressure. There is another man with an 11-year-old boy. The school place he had previously then fell apart and at this point in time the child has been languishing at home. There are sometimes issues that need to be dealt with around transport and whatever. I accept that-----

Sentiment score: 0.04

We all welcome the attempts to streamline the system. The problem is that too many children are still falling between stools. I am not taking away from the particular issues but I spoke about Hollybelle. One of the schools she applied to was a special school that she did not qualify for. Her intellectual disability was seen as too severe. As much as we have an insufficient number of places for those who have autism - I accept that there have been increases, which is necessary - there are also a number of children who fall into the bracket of intellectual disability who have no place to go. We really need to look at this across the board and come up with a comprehensive solution. The Minister of State can imagine the absolute disaster this is for families and the pressure they are under. I spoke to Tristan's mother. I believe she will be here later to protest because she is at the end of her tether and does not know where to go. I welcome the fact that we will continue this conversation offline. I did not expect to hear the solutions in here today. However, we need to get them. On a point of information, when we talk about situations breaking down, a mother wrote to me about her son Matthew, who is going to secondary school in September. She could not get him a place in an ASD class, so he has to go into a mainstream class. The problem is that the SNA co-ordinator has told her that they cannot promise him SNA access as there are only six SNAs available between first year and sixth year. She has detailed Matthew's issues to me. We are going to have cases like that across the board. We need to find a way to deliver. I will follow up with the Minister of State afterwards.

Sentiment score: 0.05