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“WITNESSING YOUR CHILD being failed is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Sarah Hennessy told the large group of parents, children and supporters gathered outside the Department of Education in Dublin this afternoon.
Today, parents from across the country are beginning a 24-hour sleepout outside the Department in demand of more special education school places for their children.
At 1 pm they marched from under Clerys clock on Dublin’s O’Connell Street to the Department on Marlborough Street.
Carrying placards with pictures of their children, they chanted: “What do we want? School places. When do we want them? Now.”
Many parents were visibly emotional as they stood listening to speeches.
Sarah Hennessy was there to advocate for her autistic son Freddie. Addressing those gathered, she said her experience as a mother has been “heartbreaking”.
“Heartbreaking because I have known nothing else but to fight constantly and advocate for my son, only to be left years on waiting lists and offered no services,” she said.
“It is a lonely and isolating place that is often met with judgement and you are often ignored,” she said.
“Autism isn’t something that goes away or something that you grow out of, it will always be here. Why do we as parents constantly have to fight for our children’s basic rights?
“We are exhausted.
“They say it takes a village, but any parent with a special needs child will tell you that that village does not exist. The lack of supports and services for our children is something Ireland should be ashamed of.”
Other speakers at the protest were Michelle Raftery and her 19-year-old daughter Kate.
Kate is autistic and spoke about the difficulties she had in mainstream school when no special education places were available.
“Before I got my diagnosis, I never understood why I struggled so much at school,” she said.
“How do you expect anything to go in when you are teaching me, when I have everything else going on in my brain? When I have a hundred other things I am focusing on? The only thing I am thinking in your lesson is ‘help’,” Kate said.
Kate’s school-related anxiety was so bad she would vomit every day and eventually ended up with significant absences.
“I was the parent sitting outside crying my eyes out because my child was so unhappy and so scared to go into school,” Kate’s mother Michelle said.
“Raising a child with additional needs is hard, but it’s not because of the child. It’s because of the lack of services, the lack of support.
“It’s because of the exclusion our children face. It’s because these parents have to fight for absolutely everything for our amazing children, and it’s not fair,” she said.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett also spoke at the event, telling those participating in the sleepout that it was “shameful” that they have been put in this position.
“Shame on this Government. In one of the richest countries in the world, a country that has record budget surpluses, they have more money than they know what to do it, and yet they can’t look after the basic rights of children to an education,” he said.
The next scandal
“Education is not a privilege. It’s your right,” Charlotte Cahill said as she read from a letter she wrote for her five-year-old daughter Cyra.
Cyra is autistic and is currently in her third year of preschool because of a school place not being available for the last two years.
Cahill, who is one of the organisers of the sleepout, had a message for the Government: “To our leaders, let me be clear, we do not want to hear another state apology years from now for the neglect of our children.
“Why is Ireland standing still?
“Why are they watching as our children are failed?
“We do not want our children to become the next scandal, the next shameful chapter in Irish history of institutional failures.”
In a statement, this afternoon Minister for Education Helen McEntee said she is doing “everything possible” to make sure there are enough places.
She said she has met twice with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) since being appointed Minister for Education and that she has been briefed on their ongoing engagement with parents involved in the demonstration.
“I am also open to meeting with the parents to hear their concerns,” she said.
The minister noted that 218 new special classes were sanctioned by the NCSE across the country this week and said more will follow imminently.
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Incredible group of parents, thank you for advocating for our beautiful children
@Elena R: FFG over and over failing Irish children
Children start school here at 4 or 5 years of age. We have a census every 5 years, so the statistics are there for how many children need school places, and how many have extra/special needs.
And yet this issue has been ongoing not for years but decades.
If you judge a society by how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable then in this regard our republic is a miserable failure, and shame on successive Education ministers and their civil servants
Would love to know how many of these parents voted for ffg in the recent election
@Brian Molloy: none of them. When you are knee deep in battling the government every day for your basic rights, you tend not to vote for the incumbent government.
@James Smith: you’ll get a woeful boot up the hole if the others get in lol
@Brian Molloy: most of them probably, people in this country don’t like change,good or bad
@Brian Molloy: parents of children with additional & complex needs are often easy prey to the promises of politicians. As a father of 2 kids with autism I know the struggles & the fears. Politicians simply do not care one bit for us & our children.
@Peter Sponge: like the boot in the hole parents are currently getting off the incumbents. Your comment just doesn’t make sense.
@Brian Molloy: the people of Ireland vote for them,
@Peter Sponge: another feckin dope is what you are.
Bigger fool, anyone who believes the Irish government care about these kids.
At the stroke of a pen, a magic money tree appeared for Covid, then Ukraine, then pet projects eg bike shed, children’s hospital and self pay increases. Yes hard work will be involved in correcting these issues for the families, and unfortunately the Gov only put in the hard yards for cover ups.
@paul ruddell: The government will never do enough to support children with special needs or speech delays. Schools may be willing to help by hiring specialized teachers or assistants, but only if funding is provided. Meanwhile, the HSE (Health Service Executive) continues to neglect these children, leaving them on waiting lists for months—or even years.
Time is critical. Every day matters when a child needs speech therapy or a diagnosis. Delays in intervention cause irreversible damage, and once that damage is done, it becomes permanent. This permanence creates lifelong struggles for the child, and parents—along with every family member—are left to shoulder the burden alone. While parents and families fight tirelessly, becoming unsung heroes, the government remains detached, seemingly unaware of the depth of their suffering.
As a parent, I urge others to remember this: Screens and mobile devices cannot replace genuine human interaction and active engagement. Prioritize real communication and meaningful activities—they make all the difference.
I agree with your say
Every single person who gave Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil a vote, this is on you, and the record homelessness numbers this month.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: up yours you haven’t a clue with your flippant comments
@James Fields: on at 3.30am with new account…. berating parents with special needs kids? What’s it like being you?
These parents are so selfish. Don’t they know we need fighter jets?
A billion spent on aslyum seeker accommodation last year, a hundred thousand euro spent yesterday on deporting 30 people. The money is there but it is being spent on other things to keep the EU happy.
All in the name of protecting the vulnerable, yet truely vulnerable aslyum seekers are lost in the mass, while money being spent on free accommodation but the most vulnerable of our society, children with additional needs cannot be supported or educated in the country they were born and their tax paying parents cannot get support. This is insane, people say voting for fffg, but the opposition would still spend the money, look at social democrats who came out today denouncing the deportations and lack of aslyum accommodation,
Loudmouth Barrett, he would be happy to flood the country with Islamists
@Peter Sponge: that’s it you deflect as much as you can
@Peter Sponge: Reported you but in the meantime, maybe spend 2 mins thinking about this 1 of your million dum comments. You’ve attempted to antagonise and provoke folks about kids with special needs? You lo lyfe sk-um nugget. Get help.
@James Fields: Peter, jim, dave… you awake? If p .Sponge is already deleted, then I’ll just come after “james” and all your accounts. But seriously, are you paid to troll here? If not, then listen to everyone who tells you….. you need help.
@Peter Sponge: Clearly you know nothing about disability, highly offensive and ignorant comment. Stand with families who have kids with disabilities rather than such ignorance.
Does she not know what their concerns are. Typical of her,as usual .
The government will never do enough to support children with special needs or speech delays. Schools may be willing to help by hiring specialized teachers or assistants, but only if funding is provided. Meanwhile, the HSE (Health Service Executive) continues to neglect these children, leaving them on waiting lists for months—or even years.
Time is critical. Every day matters when a child needs speech therapy or a diagnosis. Delays in intervention cause irreversible damage, and once that damage is done, it becomes permanent. This permanence creates lifelong struggles for the child, and parents—along with every family member—are left to shoulder the burden alone. While parents and families fight tirelessly, becoming unsung heroes, the government remains detached, seemingly unaware of the depth of their suffering.
As a parent, I urge others to remember this: Screens and mobile devices cannot replace genuine human interaction and active engagement. Prioritize real communication and meaningful activities—they make all the difference.
Does she not know what their concerns are. Typical of her. As usual .
Lots of money and accommodation for those who don’t like us very much, but not for Irish children.
Sure we’re a great country.
Sadly this is not new news and each government have been fully aware of this ÿou need a country wide march with families standing together shake the core of them to their utter shame
HSE have loads of managers to compile reports and do assessments. But have rarely met any speech or occupational therapy people for my kid. The field is exclusively women and many go on maternity leave and never return. Or take years off for sabbaticals. Work life balance is great, but we need more people in general in these services and we need it to be gender balanced.
@DAN TEDSON: fathers can take sabbaticals too.
Badly behaved kids, a good clip round the ear is needed
@Peter Sponge: dear journal, can’t you delete anything that comes from this degenerates ip address?
Yeah, I totally agree. Tell me about it. I had to apply to 43 schools to secure a secondary school place in an ASD class for my son, balancing this with full-time work. Despite schools offering online applications for neurotypical students, many demand paper applications for ASD places, forcing me to deliver 12 applications personally. My husband even took a day off work for this nonsense. We’ve had to pay for everything—OT, speech therapy, private tuition, educational assessment—you name it. While the NDT shifts responsibility to parents after a one-hour course. The state offers just 40 summer tuition hours, and HSE assessments are inaccessible. Meanwhile, Sensational Kids faced roadblocks in opening a new Kildare assessment centre. The system is failing our kids.
T-h-e-r-a-p-i-s-t is a banned word on this platform?
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