Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As we are in the last week of this Dáil session, just let me give the Taoiseach an instance of that. In April, Greg and his wife, Celine, and Greg is an SNA by the way, were in the Public Gallery here when we debated the issue of special needs. We raised the case of his son, Lewis, who is 13, who has autism and an intellectual disability, because he has no school place.

Subsequent to that debate, he met with officials from the Department of Education, the NCSE, as did Nicola who was with him and who is also an SNA. As well as having children with special needs, Greg is also an SNA. There are still no school places. If these parents do not get school places, not only will we be short-changing these vulnerable children with special needs, but Greg and Nicola will have to stop being SNAs and that will roll on to affecting other children with special needs.

Let us take the example as well of Theo, who is 14 and in residential care. He has autism on the severe end of the spectrum and an intellectual disability. He stays with his parents for a couple of days a week, who are in the Dún Laoghaire area. They had to go to court to get a placement in County Louth for their son, when they live in Dún Laoghaire. Theo is in a residential placement in County Meath but stays with his parents two days a week.

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