Several Southside TDs have sharply criticised the Government over what they say is a deepening crisis in special education, warning that hundreds of children with additional needs are still without an appropriate school place weeks into the new term.
The criticism came during a Dáil debate last Wednesday (17th) on a Sinn Féin motion highlighting the shortage of places for children with additional needs.
TDs from across the opposition benches accused the Government of “fantasy” planning, “verbal gymnastics” and “gaslighting” families, saying it was unacceptable that parents are forced to battle for years to secure basic education rights for their children.
Sinn Féin Dublin Mid West TD Eoin Ó Broin said that in over a decade as a public representative, the situation has scarcely improved.
“In the 11 years I have been an elected representative in Dublin Mid-West, every single year as the school term approaches, my office receives calls from desperate parents who do not believe their child will have a school place come September. This year has been no different,” he told the chamber.
“Parents do not come to us at the start of that battle, but near the end. They have spent months or, in some cases, years battling for those places.
“The key problems remain the same today as when I started in this job. We simply do not have enough places in our schools and, where there are places, there is a lack of follow-on places.”
Ó Broin said there was a chronic lack of long-term planning, with children who had secured primary places left without clear pathways into post-primary or specialist units.
“Delays in building new schools, units or extensions are extraordinary. It is six, seven or eight years in some cases.
“Lucan Special School and Saint Mary’s Boys School in Lucan are just two of the schools where there are ongoing delays,” he said.
He warned that even when places are eventually secured, families face further challenges.
“Schools are too far from where the parents are, school transport is not provided or is then withdrawn, or the conditions in which the teachers, SNAs and the young children get their education are wholly inappropriate.”
“The 1916 Proclamation promised to cherish the children of the nation equally,” he added. “Yet every single year the Government is failing children.”
Back in June, parents, family members and children gathered at the Garden of Remembrance prior to a protest about the lack of school places for children with additional needs.
Social Democrats Dublin South Central TD Jen Cummins was even more scathing, saying families had been misled by “empty promises and shoddy, undeliverable plans”.
“It is a disgrace that the Opposition has to constantly fight the Government on this issue of special education. The amount of anger out there is absolutely avoidable,” Cummins said.
“There is messing around with numbers so it looks like every child has a place, but the reality is they do not. Since August we have seen many families who do not have an appropriate school place for their child.”
She pointed to what she called “fantasy special education places” sanctioned on paper but not actually delivered.
“In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, Clogher Road Community College is a case in point. The board and the principal want to open a second autism classroom but they have not been able to get in contact with the Department. It was sanctioned by the NCSE, but nothing has happened. In theory, it is there, but in practice and in reality, it is not.”
She said the problem was widespread, citing Stapolin Educate Together National School in Baldoyle, where over 50 children are on a waiting list for autism classes while six eligible children are stuck in mainstream classes because new units have been refused.
“We can do two things at the one time,” Cummins said. “Instead the Department is blocking expansions in schools that are already set up and ready to go.”
Cummins also highlighted the ongoing transport chaos affecting children who have secured places but cannot get to school. She described cases in Dublin 12 where children repeatedly missed days because transport failed at the last minute.
“If it was a parent, he or she would be involved with the EWO but it was not her fault; it was the fault of the transport,” she said. “This is fantasy school transport.”
People Before Profit Dublin South West TD Paul Murphy accused the Government of “gaslighting” the public.
“It is incredible and really cynical, because the audience is not the children who are affected,” he said.
It is not the parents in the Gallery because the Minister of State knows they know that a school place does not necessarily equal a school place.
Murphy said the Government’s claim that “all bar a small handful” of children had been placed this year was false.
“Thanks to the amazing activist parents in the Equality in Education campaign, we know that for 206 children, at least, being placed for this school year in reality means being offered a place that does not physically exist either because it has not been built yet or has not been staffed yet,” he said.
“On top of that, there are 96 children who have no offer whatsoever. Of them, 42 are at home with no home tuition and no preschool. At what point does an education delayed equal an education denied for these children?”
Murphy said the Government could take urgent action but was choosing not to.
“It could double capital funding for the school building programme. It could lift the ridiculous SNA cap and immediately begin a mass SNA recruitment campaign.
“It could fast-track training and upskilling of special education teachers. It could engage in a genuine way with the parents, who are telling us the true story from the ground and who are the real experts on this.”
Responding on behalf of the Government, Minister of State Emer Higgins acknowledged the frustration but defended the progress being made.
“We need to do more and do better to ensure families have much earlier clarity on school places in their local areas,” she said.
Higgins noted that 103 new special classes had opened in Dublin this year, bringing the total to 705, and that the new Lucan Community Special School would open shortly for 30 students.
She said the Government had allocated €7.5 billion in capital funding for education between 2026 and 2030, with a strong emphasis on special educational needs, and was piloting a new single online application system to simplify admissions.
She also pointed to a 23% increase in special education teacher numbers and a 43% rise in SNA numbers since 2020 and highlighted the summer programme for children with complex needs, which saw a 52% increase in school participation since 2022.
While insisting progress was being made, Higgins conceded: “We have so much work to do to address the challenges facing the parents of children with additional needs and those children themselves.”