On the 13th of this month a boy in my constituency turned six. Boys and girls his age organise parties, but there was no one to come to his party, only his family. He has been without a school place for a year. I contacted the NCSE about him last August and still he has no school place. It is nearly May and they still do not know whether he will have a school place in August. He is not alone; there are hundreds of other children like him. Every single year children - boys and girls - are forced to watch their friends, their family and their neighbours go down the road in their school uniforms with their schoolbags on their backs while they are left at home. It is a sin. It is a sin on these poor children to be left at home without a school place. Not alone is it a sin; it is illegal. It is illegal what this Government and what Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been doing to these children for years. This did not happen today or yesterday. For six years I have come in here every year fighting for children. I see mothers who have to be like warriors outside the doors of Leinster House and who walk the streets of Cork and Dublin and every town and village looking for places for their children. How can that be right? Every child has a right to an education. It states in the 1916 Proclamation that "all the children of the nation" will be treated equally. It does not say "except if you have additional needs", "except if you have a disability" or "except if you are autistic". Every child should be treated the same. I come in here and listen to Ministers. The Minister's speech here in my hand outlines all the Government is doing. I will tell her what it is doing. There are children who have no school places, and that is the Government's responsibility.

Sentiment score: -0.08