Autism school place figures
Deputy McGrath asked how many children in Tipperary were waiting for ASD school places and complained that agencies were passing responsibility around. The Taoiseach said the NCSE should hold the figures and would ask Minister of State Madigan to reply directly.
I have been trying to ascertain the number of children awaiting autism spectrum disorder, ASD, places in schools in Tipperary. I salute the schools, boards of management, special needs assistants and teachers who have set up units. The Minister has said to me she has no records and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has them. The NCSE says it is up to the boards of management to have the figures. If the NCSE and the Department do not know how many children are waiting for these special needs places, how are we going to plan for the future as to how many units we need? There are massive anomalies in the system. We need to know how many children, unfortunately, need these special places. We need to know for the projected building programme for new units where we have boards of management and school communities that are willing to have the units and provide extra supports for children with special needs. There is a whole passing of the parcel here. Boards of management cannot be expected to know anything outside their own area and the NCSE should know. The Department will have to get records as to how many people are waiting. We need to have a train of thought here so that we know how many people we need to service.
