On Friday, the Department of Education informed us that St. Kevin's school in Finglas West was approved for a new ASD class. This brings to 20 the total number of ASD classes opened in my area in the past four years. There is a real challenge here in that for the last nine months, parents will have applied to all 20 of those schools to try to secure a place. While that is a timeline that works for mainstream students, although there are those who argue it does not work for mainstream students, it does not work for ASD students. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is not an advisory service. It should be a placement service, and while we have extra staff we need to focus on providing places to parents earlier and with more certainty. We need to plan for second level too because the ASD classes are not coming on stream quickly enough for the demographic bulge that is inevitable.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. Since I came into this role, we have seen that the number of special educational needs organisers, SENOs, will increase from 73 to 120. The Deputy is correct about the issues with enrolment, with parents applying to numerous schools. Schools have their own enrolment policies and the NCSE is sometimes blind to the figures a school has when places become available because some of those places have already been taken by children in the school. The Deputy is aware of the issues. I meet the NCSE every single week. I want to be in the position outlined by the Deputy, in which parents of children with additional needs know where their children will be in January, February or March, rather than being in the current situation. That is the reform space I am in and the work I am doing with the NCSE. I am also working with and talking to parents and schools directly to resolve this.