Sinn Féin candidate in Dublin Central Janice Boylan has spoken of the experience of raising a nine-year-old neurodivergent son.
“I have had to fight for him every day for five years to get him his diagnosis,” she said.
She was speaking at a public meeting in Ballybough organised by the campaign to save special needs assistant (SNA) places.
Boylan said she noticed when her son was about three that he showed signs of needing an assessment. She said she had to go through a battle to get a diagnosis of dyspraxia and two diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
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Independent candidate Gerry Hutch said he had not realised until Wednesday that there were kids who did not attend school because they could not get access to SNAs.
Hutch said he would not allow that situation to happen if it was his kid.
“I would be down and I would see the minister for the school. I would be down there and I would be kicking ass,” he said.
Social Democrats candidate Daniel Ennis said that while it took a village to raise a child, it took children with autism to raise awareness of the village.
“Every child deserves the same opportunities, equal opportunities.
“They are not asking for special treatment. They are just asking for equal treatment,” he said.
Labour candidate Ruth O’Dea said there was a need for a special school in the Dublin 1 area.
“We can see there are not just children who are in the wrong class, who are in the mainstream. There are also people in special classes who should not be there but be in a special school,” she said.
Janet Horner of the Green Party said from her experience of canvassing there were an “awful lot of children” who were being left behind. “That is something that is incredibly worrying and scary. We need to fix it,” she said.
Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam also addressed the meeting and said he would commit, if elected, to campaign for more resources. He did not sign a pledge, however, saying he had never done so during his career.
A number of parents and SNAs spoke at the meeting including its co-ordinator, Niamh McDonald. She said that in addition to a lack of SNAs in schools, the current Department of Education circular failed to reflect what assistants do every day, supporting participation in classrooms, communications and offering emotional regulation.
SNA Jessa Henry said it was a child’s constitutional right to have access to a full and proper education.
Parent and SNA Rachel Lowry said there were 2,360 families who had no place in education in September, a situation she described as a “disgrace”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald attended the meeting along with constituency colleagues from Dublin Central, Marie Sherlock of Labour and Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats. Dublin Central byelection candidates who attended included Ray McAdam (Fine Gael); Janice Boylan (Sinn Féin); Darren Ennis (Social Democrats); Ruth O’Dea (Labour); Gerry Hutch (Independent); and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin (PBP).
