Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 November 2022
73. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Education if she will take action to ensure that children with Down's syndrome in County Mayo have access to a school and supports in their local schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58439/22]
View answerThe battle for the right to an education for children with special educational needs has been a very long one. The €2 billion which has been provided now is very welcome. This is why it is very difficult to accept that there are still some children who are not getting their education. I am thinking in particular of a 13-year-old boy in Mayo, about whom I have written to the Minister of State. He should now be halfway through the first year at this stage but he has had no education. The school is saying that it does not have the capacity but the SENO is saying that the school does have the capacity and would have all of the resources it would need for that. There are children who are still being caught in that gap. I am asking the Minister of State, in particular, if she would intervene. I am afraid that they might appeal to the Department but that will take months and months and, by that time, the child will have gone through almost all of the year without having had an education. I ask the Minister of State to look at that.
It is unclear to me why a SENO would say that there was capacity and that the child does not have a place. That does not make any sense to me and that is something that I can follow up with the Deputy afterwards and we can take it from there.
I thank the Minister of State and will follow up with her.
