Special Educational Needs Seanad Éireann — 2021-02-19 ============================================================ Mary Seery Kearney (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach I very much appreciate the Minister of State's response. From the moment she took office, nobody could doubt the priority she placed on this issue or her passion. I recall that within a couple of weeks she had facilitated a number of meetings for me. I really appreciate it. I acknowledge the considerable work done, particularly by Ms Margaret Lowndes of the D12 autism-specific school campaign, because she beat that drum very loudly for a long time. I join her in excitement at seeing this come to fruition. It is important for us to hear about the breakdown of classes. Are those 40 places in that specific school? Is it going to be across different classes? Covid is a difficulty here but they are anxious to have a look at how the parents are being selected. Will the children of those who campaigned secure places? --- 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/seanad/2021-02-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:04+00:00 Sitting date: 2021-02-19