Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 March 2022
66. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Education the opening date for autism classes in schools (details supplied) in Dublin 12; the reason for the delay in opening the classes; and if they will be open for September 2022. [13665/22]
View answerMy question is to ask the Minister the opening date for autism classes in schools in Dublin 12, the reason for the delay in opening the classes and if they will be open for September 2022. This is a follow-up question to the question I asked on the previous occasion regarding the capacity of schools in the Dublin 12 area when the Minister of State felt there was capacity in the area. I met with the campaign for Dublin 12 autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units. They asked me to resubmit this question to give more information to the Minister of State.
I thank the Deputy, who has raised this issue with me previously.
When we are talking about special classes in general, we have to look at it in the context of the journey that we have been on. That is not to say that we still have a great deal of work to do but we have increased the number of special classes by 386% since 2011 and that is quite significant.
At the end of December, we will have 2,437 classes opened. Three hundred of those are new classes this year. We are creating approximately 1,700 special class places.
We are making progress but, as the Deputy will be well aware, there are pinch points in certain areas, particularly in cities such as Dublin and Cork.
The majority of schools in Dublin 12 have opened special classes, including four new classes in the current school year. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is continuing to engage with other schools. At present, in Dublin 12, there are 21 special classes. Fifteen are primary, including two early intervention classes, and then there are six post-primary. Out of four of these, three are primary and one is post-primary. They are all newly established as well this year: Loreto Senior National School, Loreto Junior School, St. Damian's National School on Clogher Road and City College.
There are also schools, as the Deputy will be aware because she has raised it with me in the past, that have ongoing building projects or proposed building projects in train. There will be a new ASD class in Holy Spirit, Greenhills in 2022-23. The building work has commenced. Scoil Úna Naofa is employing a consultant to oversee building works with a view to starting up a new class there. The NCSE is liaising with Drimnagh Castle school. They do not have the space at present but we are looking to see whether schemes are available there. There is the additional accommodation scheme and there are other works that can be done to try to facilitate special classes in these particular schools.
The autism community and myself are well aware of the good work that has gone on to date. There has been an increase in classes. We welcome that but, as the Minister of State said, there are still pinch points.
Holy Spirit Junior Primary School has been out to tender for an autism class for the past number of years, yet there is still no movement on it. I welcome that the Minister of State is saying that will open in 2022-23. Will she provide verification that Scoil Úna Naofa is on course to open an autism class in September 2022? They have just sorted out the asbestos problem. We want to move on that.
I will come back on Drimnagh Castle in my next contribution because there are issues around that that we should be aware of. Hopefully, we will be able to move to getting a class there as well.
To reassure the Deputy, there is intensive ongoing engagement with all of these schools by the local special educational needs organisers, SENOs, in the Dublin 12 area and I am consistently briefed on what is happening when I ask.
Scoil Úna Naofa is employing consultants, as I said, to oversee building works and we hope that it will happen as soon as possible. The aim is to open for September. I will never stand here in the Dáil and give an absolute guarantee or make a promise about anything but I know that the best endeavours are being made. It takes a great deal of work from the schools to do it.
Many of these classes were opened under the section 37 process, as the Deputy will be aware, which has been a success. We can also mention the special school, Our Lady of Good Hope in Crumlin, which has opened. That is providing 48 places. It has 36 at present but it will be in a position to take in 48 pupils at some point.
There are many ongoing discussions with patron bodies and local stakeholders around making sure that we have full capacity in the area.
I welcome those few points the Minister of State made about Scoil Úna Naofa.
With regard to Drimnagh Castle, an NCSE report a number of years ago stated:
The school had reported that it does not have the physical space to accommodate any new classes, and therefore has advised the NCSE that it is not in a position to establish ASD Special Classes. School management report that there are currently 14 SET Teachers using 6 rooms. The Patron advises this school has available land on which the school could expand.
That is certainly an area, and the Minister of State mentioned that the NCSE is looking into that. The NCSE stated recently that there is no capacity and, therefore, that has changed.
The land referred to was bought by the Romanian Orthodox Church but the land that the school sits on belongs to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. They are the trustees and the archbishop is the patron. I am sure that, after opening Our Lady of Hope in 2021, they would want to continue being inclusive in regard to opening a class in Drimnagh.
I met the archbishop in Our Lady of Good Hope and we had a conversation around special schools and special classes. They are very active and really want to try and provide that inclusivity where they can. We can all accept that sometimes there are legitimate reasons where schools do not have the capacity and, in those circumstances, we can either try to provide that building work where they can facilitate special classes or we must accept the fact that they cannot and try to find additional capacity elsewhere. That is the job of the NCSE and its SENOs.
There are many conversations going on in the Dublin 12 area because we are always aware of the fact that there is an increased demographic. We must make sure that we have a proper forecasting model in place and that we use the geographical information system from the building and planning unit to liaise with the NCSE to ensure no child who requires one is without a placement, in particular, in the Dublin area.
