Half of Louth secondary schools have no special educational needs classes

Half of Louth’s 18 secondary schools have no special educational needs classes at all, Dundalk TD Ruairí Ó Murchú has told the Dáil.

The Sinn Féin TD raised the provision of special classes during a Topical Issue debate in Leinster House last week and said: "There are 18 secondary schools in Louth, including two grammar schools, but only nine of these have special needs classes." Deputy Ó Murchú said he had met with members of All Abilities Action Alliance Louth recently and ‘to put it another way, 50% of secondary schools in Louth have no special needs classes at all’.

He said: "Reference has been made to Louth having 72 special needs classes, which would cater for 432 children with special needs. Of the nine schools that have special classes, however, one school has four special needs classes, four have three special needs classes, one has two special needs classes and three have only one special needs class. 

"That gives us a total of 21 classes. This is 29% of the target that Minister Hildegarde Naughton has spoken about. When admission notices from the schools with these 21 classes are examined, the following are the number of places for 2025: two schools have six places each; one school has four places; one school has three places; two schools have two places each; one school has one place, which is for girls only; and two schools have zero places. 

"The Minister can see the issue. We know what happens as a result - parents apply all over the place and for everything. There are constraints on schools as well and these need to be looked at.

"I have spoken previously about the Education (Amendment) Bill 2024, which I brought forward. It would allow for parents of children with autism and other disabilities to apply two years beforehand, which would enable schools to ensure all the services are ready. There is a significant number of issues here and a huge number of parents are under severe pressure."

He said there had been 98 places delivered for 2024, but the plan had been for 101 and three classes that were planned had not materialised. "I am aware of people doing a huge level of work but we also know that for families this is incredibly stressful. Nobody knows if they will actually get a place. I am also aware that a huge amount of people spoke about their child being autistic with an intellectual disability and they are looking at a number of schools. 

"In some special schools, they fall below the criteria and in others they do not have sufficient difficulties to fall into that school. It adds to problems. There are 24 individual places for the whole county. It is nowhere near the necessary target capacity. There are 75 special needs classes at primary level and 23 at secondary level."

The local TD added, "it is expected that demand will exceed the current supply of 24 places in 21 classes. That states exactly what the situation is. There is not enough capacity. We must make sure that is delivered."