Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2025-04-02
============================================================

Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

Today, parents of children with special needs from across the country will again begin an overnight sleep-out at the gates of Leinster House. These parents cannot find suitable school places for their children. It is a deep and long-standing crisis. Notwithstanding the Taoiseach's answer to Members earlier, the fact is that hundreds of children are locked out of the education to which they are entitled. When I raised this crisis with him in February, he said he would do everything to ensure that every child waiting for a school place got one in September.
However, the parents are now beside themselves with worry because, following a meeting with the Minister for Education, no such guarantee was made or given. These children and parents deserve that guarantee. They should not be forced to protest again outside the Dáil. Will the Taoiseach now again give a clear-cut commitment that every child will have access to a suitable school place come September?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-04-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-04-02