I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment and wish him well on it. I know he is very committed to the area of special needs. I am very conscious that today is World Autism Awareness Day and I certainly do not want to be seen to be pitting one group of children against another, particularly given that the special school the Department wants to put into prefabs, which is totally unacceptable, is pitted against children who are also on the spectrum within the Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. The use of prefabs as we have seen down the road in Gaelcholáiste Reachrainn, which were provided as a temporary solution but have become a 24-year permanent solution, is certainly not good enough for children with special needs. We need to knock this stupid idea on the head immediately and get these children moved into the school building with the Belmayne Educate Together, which is happy to welcome them to its building.

Sentiment score: 0.55

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Like other Deputies, I feel a visit to the school would open his eyes to the potential there for the solution that has been proposed by those on the ground. In 2004, Dublin City Council, in developing Belmayne and Clongriffin, set up what was called the North Fringe Forum. The Department was invited to engage with the forum and was told at that stage that there was going to be a crisis in respect of school places. It did nothing. Those in the Department put their heads in the sand and denied that there would be a problem. Twenty years on, they objected to planning for residential housing. There lies the problem. We need to root out the problem in the Department.

Sentiment score: -0.08