Paul Murphy: 'Gaslighting' over special school places
Paul Murphy accused the government of 'gaslighting' the public over failures to provide appropriate school places for children with additional needs, saying the situation is worse this year than last. He challenged official figures and highlighted that many 'placed' pupils lack physical or staffed places, citing at least 206 affected, 96 with no offer and 42 at home without home tuition or preschool.
Paul Murphy described the government's public reassurance as a "display of gaslighting par excellence," arguing the audience for that message is the wider public rather than the affected children or their parents, who know a listed school place does not always equal a real place.
He cited information from activist parents in the equality and education campaign, saying at least 206 children are recorded as placed for this school year but in reality have been offered places that do not yet exist or are not staffed. He also said 96 children have no offer at all and 42 children are at home with no home tuition and no preschool.
Murphy highlighted that some children face delayed starts to their school year - with some delays until November and others as late as March or April - and warned that delayed education risks becoming education denied for these children.
He recalled that the Taoiseach had promised to work "might and main" to ensure every child had an appropriate school place by September, and pressed for concrete actions: double capital funding for the school building programme, lifting the SNA cap and a mass SNA recruitment campaign, fast-tracking training and upskilling for special education teachers, and genuine engagement with parents who are "the real experts on this."
Allegation of government gaslighting
Paul Murphy described the government's public reassurance as a "display of gaslighting par excellence," arguing the audience for that message is the wider public rather than the affected children or their parents, who know a listed school place does not always equal a real place.
Actual placement figures and concerns
He cited information from activist parents in the equality and education campaign, saying at least 206 children are recorded as placed for this school year but in reality have been offered places that do not yet exist or are not staffed. He also said 96 children have no offer at all and 42 children are at home with no home tuition and no preschool.
Delays and impact on children
Murphy highlighted that some children face delayed starts to their school year - with some delays until November and others as late as March or April - and warned that delayed education risks becoming education denied for these children.
Proposed remedies and political challenge
He recalled that the Taoiseach had promised to work "might and main" to ensure every child had an appropriate school place by September, and pressed for concrete actions: double capital funding for the school building programme, lifting the SNA cap and a mass SNA recruitment campaign, fast-tracking training and upskilling for special education teachers, and genuine engagement with parents who are "the real experts on this."
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Transcript
What we've had tonight from the government is a display of gaslighting par excellence. Incredible and really cynical because the audience is not the children who are affected, the audience isn't the parents in the gallery because you know they know that a school place doesn't necessarily equal a school place. The audience is the public who are concerned and think it's horrifying that there's children with additional needs that don't have appropriate school places and so the message to them is oh don't worry all bar a very small handful of children in Dublin have been placed for this school year when the truth is it appears the problem is even worse this year than last year. We had a motion this time last year in the Dáil which referred to 120 children then without an appropriate school place. The government now is saying that all bar a small handful but you know everyone here knows you're playing with words because thanks to the amazing activist parents in the equality and education campaign we know that for 206 children at least being placed for this school year in reality means being offered a place that doesn't physically exist either because it hasn't been built yet or because it hasn't been staffed yet and the minister earlier had a great euphemism talking about for some children there's a delay to the start of their school year due to construction work. A delay for some till November for others till March or April I mean at what point does an education delayed equal an education denied for these children on top of that 96 children who have no offer whatsoever of them 42 who are at home with no home tuition and no preschool we need an end to the spin give us the honest figures so we can see just how many children are left without appropriate places the government likes to say we're doing everything we can the last issue I raised with the Taoiseach before the summer recess was this he told me we're going to work might and main to make sure every child has an appropriate school place by September but is that true I'm not talking about the personal effort of the minister I accept that but there's different decisions you could make you could double capital funding for the school building program you could lift the ridiculous SNA cap and immediately begin a mass SNA recruitment campaign you could fast track training and upskilling of special education teachers you could engage in a genuine way with the parents who are telling us the true story from the ground and who are the real experts on this