No room at the school for special needs pupils

FIVE special needs children find themselves outside the education system due to a funding dispute between a Dublin school and the Department of Education.

Yesterday, the man pursuing a high-profile campaign to secure a special needs school place for his 11-year-old daughter was informed at an emergency meeting with school management that five children’s enrolments at St Michael’s special school were delayed because of funding issues.

James McDonagh, 31, whose daughter, Angel, suffers from closed spina bifida and learning difficulties was told by the Department of Education and the HSE to enrol Angel at the St Michael’s House special school in Rathgar. However, when he took his daughter to the school yesterday morning, school management said they could not enrol her due to lack of staff, the run down state of school buildings and cutbacks to school travel expenses.

Mr McDonagh said after a tour of the school building it was clear the school was not suitable to cater for his child’s needs.

“One issue is lack of funding for transport to the school. So the situation in this country is that special needs children can’t get to school, while Mary Harney spent hundreds of thousand travelling around the US on the Government jet. I’m calling on Minister for Education Batt O’Keefe to make a statement on this issue or resign.”

Also at the emergency meeting was People Before Profit councillor Richard Boyd Barrett, who said, “The school are very upset that this situation pertains. They want to enrol Angel and four other children, but they feel their in an impossible position. This is wilful neglect of a very vulnerable section of society by the Government. It’s a scandal.”

A St Michael’s House spokeswoman said for nearly 20 years St Michael’s House had been seeking funds from the department to build a purpose-built school, but “regrettably it appears that this project is on hold indefinitely”.

A spokesman for the department said the Department of Education and Science, along with the National Council for Special Education, had met with the patron of a school to which an application for enrolment was made. “A number of issues were discussed and clarification was sought in relation to the issue in question. The patron has agreed to consider the matter and revert to the department.”