Legislation, which would allow families of children with special needs to apply for a primary or secondary school place two years beforehand, rather than the current 12 months, has been introduced in the Dáil by Dundalk TD Ruairí Ó Murchú.
The Sinn Féin TD introduced his first piece of legislation on Wednesday last, named the Education (Amendment) Bill and used his time in Taoiseach’s Questions to highlight the legislation to Simon Harris.
He also asked An Taoiseach about the best means of providing assessment and therapies and the provision of assistive technologies for children with autism at schools.
Deputy Ó Murchú said: ‘I ask the Taoiseach to support the idea behind my Education (Amendment) Bill.
‘This is the proposal that parents of kids with special needs would be able to apply to schools, primary and secondary, two years beforehand. This would allow the school, the parents and everybody to do everything that needs to be done and the Department, and whoever else, to play their parts.
In response, An Taoiseach said: ‘There is a change of approach being taken in respect of school places.
‘We will look seriously Deputy Ó Murchú’s Bill, which instinctively sounds to me to be logical, but let us look at it in more detail.
‘A forward planning unit has now been set up in the Department of Education in relation to special schools, children with disabilities, and planning.
‘This cannot be rocket science. People know that when a child is X age they will require a secondary school place. It seems to me that this has not been happening at an early enough point.
‘I can stand here today and tell the Deputy with a degree of confidence that every child will have a school place in September.
‘I get that and that is good, but it can sometimes miss the point, though, regarding the level of stress, anxiety and worry that the child and their family go through. The point is taken, and I am happy to follow up on the additional specific cases if the Deputy so wishes.
‘On the issue of therapy places, I can assure the Deputy, because I have looked into it, that this is not an issue of an embargo. I accept that the HSE has to live within its budget, and we can debate what is an appropriate level of workforce, etc.
‘What we have to look at as well as the funding of our children’s disability services is how we can use technologies and reform the delivery of services. I hear that from parents and that is one issue that is being supported’.
ENDS
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