Dublin West councillor John Walsh has called on Minister of State for Special Education Josepha Madigan TD to apologise for “naming and shaming” four national schools for allegedly failing to engage with departmental requests to provide classes for children with autism.
Speaking yesterday evening, councillor Walsh said that Minister Madigan should apologise to these schools for targeting them based “on wrong and misleading information.”
Her deliberate targeting of Scoil Bride Buachailli National School, Blanchardstown is shameful and ignores the work already done by the school to provide for children with additional needs,” he said.
“Scoil Bride Buachailli has a strong track record as an inclusive school community with a diverse student population – the school already has one special class and has been in regular communication with the NCSE to raise shortcomings in staffing and resources.”
Labour councillor John Walsh called on Minister Madigan to apologise to the schools she “named and shamed.”
Walsh says that the brunt of the blame should fall on Minister Madigan and her department for failing to plan for an increased need in ASD classes.
“There is a national crisis in provision for children with autism because Ms Madigan’s department and the NCSE have failed miserably to plan for and implement appropriate school places for autistic children.
“This crisis came to a head in Dublin 15 and it was only when dedicated groups of parents, including Autism Dublin 15, campaigned publicly to highlight a dramatic shortfall in appropriate school places for autistic children and a severe lack of special classes in post primary schools in Dublin 15, that the Minister took any action,” Walsh says.
“Now Minister Madigan is blaming schools, principals and teachers to divert attention from the failures of her own department and the Government.
“Principals are right to challenge Minister Madigan’s opportunistic posturing and failure to resolve long-standing problems which her Department has known about for years.
“Setting up a special class requires more than an empty room – schools need specialised staffing, resources and consistent support, all of which the Department has repeatedly failed to provide,” Walsh says.
“In Dublin 15 alone, Danu Community Special School – the first special school set up for fifteen years – has been left without a full-time behavioural therapist for almost three years and hasn’t even able to secure a caretaker.”