We have recently had announcements of three special education classes for the Wicklow constituency. Two are for Greystones Community College, which is a brand new building that will hopefully open soon, and one is for Dominican College in Wicklow town. We will have three special education classes in secondary schools open. The one for Dominican College Wicklow was sanctioned and meant to open last year. The Department then pulled that sanction, so this is really a reannouncement of a sanction. Setting that all aside, no primary schools received additional special education classes in the entire constituency of Wicklow. I was really surprised. I welcome the opening of any classes, so I welcome the three secondary school classes, but compared to the amount of demand and what I am hearing from parents, I do not understand how only three classes were sanctioned. I am aware of 16 parents whose children have letters of eligibility and need a special education class. The majority are for primary schools. I collected this information just last week. I could sit down here and come up with four for Bray. I could find an entire class for the Minister of State now, so I do not know how more were not sanctioned. Coupled with that, I am aware of schools that want special education classes sanctioned. They asked the Department or the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, for them but those have not been sanctioned. There seems to be a complete mismatch between what the demand is and what the provision is, and I just do not understand it. I wanted to raise that with the Minister of State. Parents are very worried, and they deserve answers about this. The other thing I want to raise is the fact that there are still a number of children who do not have the letter of eligibility. I have raised this with the Minister of State previously. The portal to get that letter of eligibility was closed on, I believe, 1 October by the NCSE. I asked at the time what would happen to those parents who did not have the documentation ready or who were not aware of the portal. The Minister of State told me, and this has been the position of the NCSE, that parents and children would not be left behind and would be supported. That has not happened. There are parents of children who did not receive a letter of eligibility because they did not get a chance to apply for one, and their children could not even apply for a special education class. I am not sure what they are actually meant to do. Those parents are incredibly worried and stressed. It seems to me that nobody really knows what is happening. The system has changed for special education classes and it is still in a very transitionary period. I understand that. You change policies; that happens. What we cannot have happen is children falling through those gaps. That is absolutely not fair. I am aware of a child who has been offered a special school place and the school is willing and able to enrol the child but the special educational needs organiser, SENO, has refused to issue a letter of eligibility because the deadline was missed. We have a place that is waiting for a child who needs it and that deadline is stopping them getting it. I am aware of another child who the letter of eligibility said needed a special class place. Their local mainstream said it could not give the child that place and they needed to go somewhere else. That means travelling the entire length of the county and there are no places. It seems there is a lot of confusion and, unfortunately, parents and children are bearing the brunt of it. I really hope the Minister of State can come in and clarify some matters for me. I will always welcome any classes being opened but I do not think enough are being opened.

Sentiment score: 0.07

I thank the Minister of State. It is not often that I, or any Opposition TD, comes in here and gets the answer they want from a Minister of State. I welcome the fact he has confirmed there will be additional special education classes for Wicklow and that they will be announced shortly. In relation to letters of eligibility, I understand the Department is working hard on this issue but what can I tell parents? As I said, one child has a place and the school is happy to take the child but the family does not have the letter of eligibility. The SENO has actually said they will not issue one because the deadline has been missed. Does the Minister of State have a message I could give to those parents who do not have a letter of eligibility? What are they meant to do? Do they talk to the SENOs? How do they apply for a letter of eligibility in the absence for the portal being opened? Ideally, it would be brilliant if the Minister of State opened the portal because that would be the simplest way to deal with this. Otherwise, people are relying on individuals within the system. I ask the Minister of State to open the portal, even if only for a few weeks, to allow the backlog to go through. What do I tell parents in this instance? I will raise another issue with the Minister of State that came back very strongly when I spoke to parents. While it is brilliant that there are special education classes and places for children on the autism spectrum, there is a huge deficit in places for children with mild learning difficulties. That is a very big problem as well. I ask the Minister of State to take that into consideration. I know the NCSE will sanction places based on what the demand is but that issue is coming to me very strongly. At one stage, the special schools were told they would not be able to take in children with a mild learning difficulty diagnosis and they would have to go mainstream but mainstream schools do not have the capacity. Some of those children will get lost in some of the very big schools. I ask the Minister of State to take that into consideration when developing policy in this regard.

Sentiment score: 0.13