Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
ABOUT 150 PARENTS and teachers vented their frustration at local politicians during a public meeting at a school in Firhouse in Dublin during which they pleaded for more autism supports.
Firhouse Educate Together National School was the venue for the mid-election campaign meeting which saw teachers say that children were being put in unsuitable environments because the required services are not available.
Parents of autistic children, as well as parents of neurotypical children, also spoke during the meeting.
There are 288 children in the school, 77 of whom are in mainstream classes and require additional needs.
There are between two and eight children with complex additional needs in each class and there are seven special needs assistants (SNAs) in the entire school.
Parents say that the lack of resources means that children can sometimes be put on shorter days or that classes can be disrupted when autistic children are in difficulty.
Advertisement
“At the moment an SNA might be shared between a couple of classrooms, so if you have a child who is very upset and in the middle of a meltdown in classroom number one, the SNA could be in classroom number two,” Niamh Neville told TheJournal.ie.
So you’ve the teacher then dealing with 20-something children, one that is having a meltdown, and five or six other children on the autistic spectrum who may be sensory, not able to cope with the noise and the sounds, or who may have ADHD and are full of energy can’t sit still. So really it’s after getting very chaotic in our classrooms.
Neville is the mother of a boy in the school who has autism and she says there is an “acute shortage” of SNAs for the children who need them.
This week’s public meeting also heard from the school’s principal Collette Dunne, acting deputy principal Heather O’Doherty and chairperson of the school board Francis Fullen.
Each said the number of special needs assistants (SNAs), or inclusion support assistants (ISAs) as they are also known, is inadequate for their needs.
O’Doherty said that what is currently on offer is vastly short of what is required.
“Children are being forced into environments that are not suitable to them, and are not helping them. The allocation that we can give them is not enough, the allocation in other schools is not enough,” she said.
“We have children that we’ve had to put on shortened days in this school. That’s putting huge stress and pressure on our families and we are at the coal face of it.
We are looking at those parents who are pleading with us, what are they going to do with their child, they have to go to work.
“We have children in this school who are afraid to come to school, that their class is going to be evacuated again for the fourth time this week, because there’s a child in their class who can’t cope anymore,” O’Doherty added.
Related Reads
South Dublin schools urged to open more special needs places to tackle shortage
Pictures on the wall in the school hall. Rónán Duffy / TheJournal.ie
Rónán Duffy / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie
Dáil deputies Colm Brophy (FG), Paul Murphy (Sol-PBP), John Lahart (FF) and Seán Crowe (SF) were among those present at the meeting and spoke individually to parents after the public meeting.
Election candidates Carly Bailey (Soc Dems) and Sandra Fay (Sol-PBP) did so too and also stood up to speak during the meeting.
Bailey said that she has two children in the school, including one who has autism, and that the response to the “crisis” has been too slow.
“This is something that has been on the radar of politicians for years, I don’t accept that this is now something that they’ve learned about,” she said.
Every single day we are hearing from people in very similar situations, every single day TDs across the country are receiving calls or getting on visits to their clinics from parents who are in dire straights and they don’t know where to turn.
Another parent Des Kenny, who said he has two children with autism, also said that the response from government to the problem has been too slow.
“I hope the candidates for the next election are listening to the anger in the room. I hope that the outgoing government are also listening intently because there’s a real edge of anger in the room, some arrived late but I’m sure you’ll catch up,” Kenny said.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
General Election 2020 Newsletter
The results are in, now keep up to date with all the latest on government formation efforts with our regular newsletter
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
35 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Young man jailed for eight years over murder of Thomas Dooley
1 hr ago
3.1k
Change
Leinster football semi-finals to be moved out of Croke Park for first time in 30 years
45 mins ago
1.7k
2
Dublin
Mother and son face losing home after change to tenants scheme
18 hrs ago
65.4k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 161 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 143 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 113 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 134 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say