Cork Special School protest: 'Our kids were left to rot'

“Absolutely no help at all, we’re just left on our own, my words might sound dramatic but, literally, our kids were left to rot!”

Parent Dervla O’Connor, whose son Paul attends St Killian’s Special School in Mayfield, was speaking during yesterday’s protest by a crowd of well over 100 parents, children, teachers and ers at the Northside school, a hub for children with special needs from all over Cork, with some travelling from as far away as Limerick.

Ms O’Connor, along with the other parents and children, was protesting following the omission of the school from a pilot scheme to restore therapists to special schools following their withdrawal back in 2019/2020 to make way for a new scheme, Progressing Disability Services. This scheme was supposed to assign therapists to children with special needs in their homes but is now acknowledged by many not to have succeeded.

Largest

St Killian’s Special School, which is the largest not alone in Cork but in Munster, was not listed among four Cork Special Schools announced last week to be included in a pilot scheme to return therapists to special schools despite being described by Disability Minister, Anne Rabbitte, as the catalyst for devising the scheme in the first place.

St Killian’s Parents Unite spokesperson Eibhlín Gleeson told the gathering that she and others from the school had met Ms Rabbitte last November about their proposal to get private therapists into the school.

“We went with an open mind [to have] a very solution-focused meeting, where we were told if we found private therapists, the minister would fund them,” she said. 

“We did the work, we sourced the therapists, we sourced the company, we bought the equipment. When we went to draw down the money, we got silence from the minister’s department.

“We heard that there was a pilot project on the way, we got a sense we were being considered for that, but, lo and behold, when the pilot was announced, we weren’t included.”

Alternative

The alternative to this is that St Killian’s be granted the €150,000 per year that they were told was available to fund private therapy.

“We have a provider ready to go,” they said in an open letter to Ms Rabbitte and Tánaiste Mícheál Martin.

Principal Sue Lenihan asked why a pilot scheme was even necessary, given that there had been therapists in the schools four years ago.

“The difference for a child having therapeutic intervention in school to having none is significant,” she said.

“It’s catastrophic to review the children who have received no therapeutic intervention over the past five years and the damage that is being done, day-on-day, week-on-week, month-on-month and, in some cases for our children, year-on-year.

“They are not reaching their full potential, they are entitled to this, they deserve this, they’re vulnerable, they’re special, and they’re amazing.

“Despite all the challenges that they face every day, they come to school, they smile, and they do their best.

“We do our best, their parents do their best — we need the Government to do its best and deliver on its promises.”

The protesters were also addressed by Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Mick Barry, who said that how St Killian’s was treated would be an issue at the forthcoming general election.

“These children have additional needs, and the Government needs to step up to provide the additional funds,” he said.

Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould commended parents for taking time out of their busy lives to organise and attend this protest.

Forgotten

“You can get money now for anything, from dog racing to cycle lanes, but if your child has a disability or your child has additional needs, they’re forgotten about,” he said.

Fine Gael senator Tim Lombard travelled from West Cork to attend the protest. “I’m deeply disturbed that we don’t have this issue solved running into the latter days of August and September just around the corner,” he said.

In response to a query from The Echo, a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth said that the names of a further 10 schools to be included in the pilot scheme would be announced in October, to commence in January.

The spokesperson said: “A plan to fund the provision of private therapy at St Killian’s Special School via grant funding was discussed between the minister and the school.

“However, due to concerns expressed by the HSE National Office relating to governance and supervision by the CDNT [children’s disability network team] of private providers and the resources required for same, the proposal was not advanced and instead evolved into this pilot scheme now getting under way.”

Ms Gleeson said the group did not accept there were issues around governance, but if they existed, they were “easily resolved”.

“These are not good enough reasons to keep our children from therapies that will change the course of their lives,” she said.