Minister defends decision to exclude Cork special school from pilot project

Parents said they were devastated to hear the 104 vulnerable children, without therapies for four years, are not included in the pilot scheme 

A spokesman for Minister of State for disabilities Rabbitte said funding was made available previously for 223 roles, but progress was affected by shortages of health and social care professionals. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Minister of State for disabilities Anne Rabbitte has defended the decision to leave St Killian’s Special School in Cork out of a pilot project bringing therapies back to schools. 

Parents said they were devastated to hear the 104 vulnerable children, without therapies for four years, are not included.

The project will include 16 special schools in Cork and Dublin. 

A spokesman for Ms Rabbitte said funding was made available previously for 223 roles but progress was affected by shortages of health and social care professionals. 

The spokesman said six schools are confirmed and added: “A school not being selected in Phase 1 does not preclude selection in other phases.” 

The remaining schools will be announced in October and he expects therapists to be in schools for January. 

Selection criteria was based, he said, on "detailed engagement undertaken by the Department of Education over recent years, including school visits by department officials, facilitation of workshops, and engagement through focus groups".

This, and advice from the National Council for Special Education, identified where students have the greatest level of needs.

Parents also questioned why funding for private therapy, pledged by Ms Rabbitte in November, was not provided.

“A plan to fund the provision of private therapy at St Killian’s Special School via grant funding was discussed between the Minister and the school,” the spokesman confirmed.

“However, due to concerns expressed by the HSE National Office relating to governance and supervision by the Children’s Disability Network Teams of private providers and the resources required for same, the proposal was not advanced and instead evolved into this pilot scheme now getting underway.”

A spokeswoman for the Parents of St Killians said on Monday there was nothing reassuring in the response for their families. 

We are starting into school in September again, another year without anything in place, we've had reassurances before and they didn't materialise.

She said they want to see either the pledged funding or a place in the pilot school for their children. 

The families plan to protest the decision to leave them out on Thursday at 1pm in the school in Mayfield.