The Taoiseach says there will have to be forward planning in the future. Why is that forward planning not taking place under this Government? Why did it not take place under the previous Government? The crisis in special education is simply getting worse under the Taoiseach's watch. There are now hundreds of parents who do not know if their children will have a school place in September. One mother in north Cork, Sheila Casey Jones, told the Irish Examiner that her son Patrick has received 29 rejections for a school place. The situation is now so desperate that Sheila is contacting schools as far away as Laois, Kilkenny and Donegal to find a place. How has the Taoiseach and the Government let a situation like this happen, whereby a family in Cork is desperately looking for school places as far away as Donegal?

I attended a protest outside the Department of Education on Friday where parents were sleeping out to try to get places for their children with additional needs. No one should have to do this. Speaking to families at the protest, their deep frustration was clear. Parents told me they had been cast into the role of project manager in trying to secure a place for their children. They are co-ordinating between school principals, boards of management, builders, the NCSE and the Department of Education. They are desperately trying to get classrooms delivered in time for their children to start school. Despite all their efforts, days, weeks and months go by without progress being made. This is incredibly frustrating for parents and families who are already facing huge pressures and responsibilities and it is grossly unfair on children who may not have the school places they need in September.

Where is the co-ordination on this? Where is the drive? Why are parents being left to try to sort this out? It is the Government's job to ensure every child receives an education. It is the Taoiseach's role to sort out this issue, whether it is a lack of co-ordination or a lack of drive .

Charlotte Cahill, one of the parents at the protest on Friday, summarised her experience as follows: "They designed the system so that a door closes at every opportunity." When will these doors start opening? Does the Taoiseach accept the Government is failing these families and their children? Can he guarantee that every child who needs one will have an appropriate place in school in September?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. To clarify, funding is not an issue here. The Deputy spoke about planning and so forth. I am aware of the case highlighted by Sheila Casey Jones in respect of her son Patrick. In Cork alone, we now have about 16 special schools, as well as Cork University Hospital School, educating approximately 1,000 children in the Cork area. Three of those schools, namely, Carrigaline, Rochestown and East Cork community special schools, were only established in the past two to three years.

I made the point earlier that in previous years people were promoting the idea that we should have full mainstream integration and there was less enthusiasm around special schools. This view emanated from UN sources. This was growing currency in the past decade and, in my view, that is wrong. When the last Government came in, we changed direction and said we wanted special schools established.

Ultimately, we need to move towards full campuses where there is a full continuum between mainstream, post-primary, special and integrated between the three. The ETB is the way forward. I initiated the special schools under ETBs with the Minister, Deputy Foley, in recent years. We have brought the ETB system into special education for the first time. Cork ETB is now the patron of Carrigaline Community Special School. That is the future and the State has to be proactive in providing special education places, new schools and new additional places and special classes. There will be 400 special classes established this year alone. Special needs education now accounts for 25% of the overall education budget, as is right and correct. With regard to the school in the north city area, I am awaiting further information on where that issue is for that school on the northside of Cork that could be acquired. This needs to happen quickly for parents like Sheila Casey Jones and their kids.

I take the point that these issues need to be accelerated but there has been much more happening on the special school front in recent years than might have been the case in the past decade. We need to do it much faster, however, because the population is growing. The demand and the numbers coming out of primary will increase; there is no question about that. Post-primary has been much slower than primary in terms of the special needs provision. We have legislation which can compel schools. The approach has always been to try to persuade schools and bring people with you so that the ethos and spirit is correct in facilitating special needs education. In my view, it is a fundamental issue in terms of rights and, therefore, no school should be refusing a child on the basis of the child having an additional special need. That relates more to the special classes issue but we do have to develop more special schools and we are determined to do that.

Does the Taoiseach see something wrong with parents who have a huge amount on their hands being cast into the role of project managing to try to get a school place for their child? There is something fundamentally wrong with that. What is the Taoiseach doing to sort this out? Parents should not be put in that situation. The Taoiseach said 400 special classes have been promised to be opened this year but he has also said that only 218 have been sanctioned. There is a huge gap between sanctioning places and classes for children and them actually being delivered. Parents are being told it will take between 12 and 18 months for modular classrooms to be delivered and they are trying to manage this process. Children have a right to education and it is the Taoiseach's role to ensure they get the education they require. What is the Taoiseach doing to sort this out? It is not acceptable that parents have to protest again this Saturday in Cork to highlight this. What is the Taoiseach doing to sort this situation out?

It is wrong that parents have to be the proactive person in securing a place for their child. I believe the State should be doing that. The National Council for Special Education should have a proactive role in identifying the demand and need, and then agreeing the proper placement for a child. That is what I believe and it was the case before the establishment of the NCSE, when inspectors used to do this. When we stopped a lot of this in the late 90s, in 1998, decisions of that Government gave an automatic entitlement to children with special needs to a pupil-teacher ratio and to placements and so forth. The system then grew very big, however. It has grown exponentially due to mainstreaming and so forth. The figures are significant and tell another story, which is that there has been huge growth in special classes, SNAs and so on. That is no consolation to the parents who are currently protesting because they do not see any light at the end of the tunnel right now. They have no chink of light in terms of what the direction of travel is for their child or where their child is going to be.

The NCSE, to be fair, has been working on this agenda of proactive engagement with parents. That is the key to the issue. The State should be saying, "We understand the needs of this child, we believe this is the best location for the child and we are going to facilitate the child being located there". That is where we will get to.