News Release 24 February 2008

Press Release from Castleknock Educate Together National School on its Special Needs Unit

The Board of Management of Castleknock Educate Together National School is issuing this press release in order to clarify the situation regarding the opening of the Special Needs Unit for autistic children in our school.

In April 2007 a new permanent 16 classroom building for our school was opened in Castleknock. A 2 classroom Special Needs Unit for an autistic unit was incorporated into this building.

Before we moved to the new permanent building in April 2007 the Board assessed what was involved in setting up the new Special Needs Unit. We sought professional advice from those that had direct experience in this area. That advice, which was very clear, warned in the strongest terms against opening the Special Needs Unit without the expertise of occupational, speech and behavioural therapy specialists. That expertise is not provided by the Department of Education and Science but by the HSE through the agency of Beechpark Services.

In early 2007, before the permanent building was finished, the Board wrote to the Department of Education explaining we would only open the new unit when the expertise of Beechpark Services was secured. We wrote also to Beechpark Services requesting to be taken on by them. Beechpark Services have not been able to provide its expertise to our school due to insufficient funding from the HSE.

We have continued to lobby public representatives on this issue. We have kept contact with Beechpark Services and the HSE, and have kept the Department of Education & Science fully informed. The HSE is in the process of allocating funds to Beechpark Services and we are hopeful that we will secure their services in the near future.

As is evident we have worked tirelessly and communicated and consulted widely at all stages. We therefore reject any criticism of our school community regarding the present dilemma.

At all times we remain positive that a speedy resolution is forthcoming and we thank the media for helping us to highlight our case.


Contacts:
Sean Jennings, Chairperson of the Board of Management for CETNS
Dermot Higgins, Principal of CETNS