The principal of a Dublin school catering for children with severe disabilities has expressed concern that his school has been overlooked by yesterday's announcement of 295 extra special needs assistants (SNAs) for mainstream schools around the country.
Mr Brendan Hennigan, principal of Sandymount School for children with physical and multiple disabilities, told The Irish Times that his school has been waiting for at least four new SNAs since last June.
Some 32 of the school's 57 students need a high level of care. But according to the Department of Education, yesterday's announcement does not apply to such schools.
And the Department's refusal to sanction assistants for his school has forced Mr Hennigan to cancel all trips for children because of a lack of staff to monitor them. "We're at the end of our tether trying to make ends meet and trying to keep the level of activities and education here," he said.
"At the moment the fashionable thing is integration into mainstream schools, but there are some children who will never make it into mainstream schools.
"The focus doesn't seem to be on us. A lot of our activities are very labour-intensive activities.
"Our children have to be hoisted or changed, or taken out of the swimming pool . . . A lot of these young people don't get out very often.
"So we put the emphasis on getting out there. But it is very hard to maintain things like swimming without outside intervention."
However, a spokeswoman for the Minister for Education, Ms Hanafin, said that while yesterday's announcement was aimed at clearing the backlog in mainstream schools, the Minister had acknowledged that there was more work to be done.