An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Rory Hearne (SD), Dublin North-West

I want to raise the case of Roman Slater, a six-year-old boy in my constituency who is still at home. He has no school place. I have spoken to his mother regularly over the past few weeks and she is broken. She has applied to numerous schools but he still has no school place. He has autism and a developmental delay. I spoke to her again today and asked if there was any update. She said it is so draining, that she thought she would have a place for Roman by now and that knowing a school is willing to take him but will not be given the resources is very frustrating. I raised it with the Minister last week and I wrote to the Minister three and a half weeks ago in relation to it. There is a local school that says it will take him but it needs to be guaranteed by the NCSE that it will be given the resources to do that. Will the Taoiseach guarantee Roman will not spend a sixth week out of school?
I watched the programme last night and it was shocking. Samantha, the SNA in it, made the point that children with additional needs are being left in situations that children without additional needs would not be left in. It would not be tolerated that a child would be at home for five weeks without a school place. Children with additional needs should not be left like that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29