I have been speaking to parents and teachers from Little Angels Special School in Letterkenny. From the day the first block was ever laid in the new building, we knew the school would be too small to fulfil future demands. Some of the temporary solutions to this issue could be to use two rooms in the old school and transport the newest modular buildings to the new building. Why did this project start when the Department already knew it would be too small? Three classrooms in a neighbouring school had to be utilised to accommodate the demand.

According to The Irish Times, the numbers of children with autism in school systems has increased by 1.8% in the past three years but there has been no increase in places to reflect this. Now nine children with complex needs have to go to school in September. Their families are so worried that they are in distress. They have nowhere to go. They need to know if they will get into Little Angels in September. Will the Taoiseach do something to help them? It should not be that families are left in such distress. These are most vulnerable families, in society and in Donegal.

Deputy Doherty raised this yesterday and I answered it comprehensively in terms of the information that I had. There is a new school nearing completion, as the Deputy says, and there are some proposals in terms of additionality to try to facilitate children who need places there. It seems the new school is already at capacity. I can get the note to the Deputy on the up-to-date position.