State must not ignore healthcare

TOO often it happens in this country that parents of children with special needs are forced into confrontation with the Government to try and wrench for them the rights to which they should be entitled.

Another such example is the deplorable situation in St Vincent's School, a special-needs school in Dublin, which is documented in this newspaper today.

What happened was that the 34 children attending it returned this month to find that the nursing staff of seven had been reduced to one, plus one job sharer. They were replaced by six teachers and 12 classroom assistants.