I recently raised the issue of the lack of an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit in Carrick-on-Suir and to be honest, the discussions I have had with the Department on the matter since have been unsatisfactory. There seems to be an attempt to overestimate the number of spaces available at neighbouring schools.

I want to talk about Sacred Heart Primary School in Roscrea, which had an exceptional review of its mainstream special needs assistant, SNA, allocation in October of last year. The school made this request because in summer 2020, it knew the allocated SNA resources for its mainstream classes were not adequate. Despite numerous emails to the visiting special educational needs organiser, SENO, who carried out the review, the school has heard nothing back since. That has been going on six months into the school year. As a consequence, the school has had no SENO in place since 24 September 2021. As the Taoiseach will appreciate, this is a huge loss locally for the parents and children within the school community. To keep a school in the dark in this way is unacceptable. I am hopeful something can be done to address this immediately. I certainly hope this is not the trend being experienced by other schools and parents around the country.

As the Deputy is aware, the NCSE allocates special needs assistants to schools. Record numbers of SNAs have been allocated again this year. The range of resources for special education continues to significantly increase year on year. I will refer the Deputy’s case, as well as the issue that he has raised, to the NCSE for a response.