‘Our children are being treated like second-class citizens'

A mother who participated in a protest and overnight sleep-out at the gates of Leinster House to demand a place in Little Angels Special School for nine excluded children says she’s cautiously optimistic that places will be made available.

Patricia O’Donnell from Kilmacrennan, whose four-year-old son Ben is one of nine children who have been denied a place in Little Angels in September, said a meeting with Minister of State Michael Moynihan, who has responsibility for special education, went well.

“He didn’t give a 100% guarantee but did indicate that we will have a positive outcome on Monday,” she told DonegalLive “I really hope that this is it, that we get a decision on Monday confirming the children’s places in Little Angels.”

Ms O’Donnell and four other mothers who formed the ‘Don’t Forget Our Little Angels’ group, as well as grandparents and supporters, travelled to Dublin to take part in a protest outside the national parliament on behalf of children with special needs.

The event was organised by a group called Equality in Education and timed to coincide with World Autism Day.

While there, the Donegal parents met and swapped stories with families in similar situations across the country, and spokesperson Aoife Dorrian attended a question-and-answer session with TDs and Senators to give a parent’s perspective on the impact of the capacity crisis in special education.

Minister of State Charlie McConalogue arranged for the Donegal group to meet with Michael Moynihan, the Minister of State with responsibility for Special Education, to discuss solutions to the shortage of places at Little Angels for new entrants next September.

Donegal’s other Oireachtas members, including TDs Pearse Doherty, Pat the Cope Gallagher, Charles Ward, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Senator Manus Boyle, also attended the meeting.

“Our full group got to meet with the Minister, and we got more than we were expecting,” Ms O’Donnell said. “He wanted each of us to tell our stories, and listened as we put forward our case for a place. We also advocated for the parents who weren’t there as best we could and it became quite emotional.

“We told the Minister our stories, and how we have spent day and night over this past seven weeks campaigning for a place for our children.

“For many of us, it was our first night spent away from our children in months or even years, and we were left with no option but to spend that night on the streets of Dublin to try and secure a school place. We were quite apprehensive going into the meeting and weren’t sure what to expect as there have been delays in the Minister receiving a report from senior officials and architects.

“We feared we were being put on the long finger. But we left the meeting in a more positive frame of mind. They have two solutions to choose from, which I don’t want to detail at the moment, but their favoured one has a deadline of Monday [April 7], while the other option would take longer to sort.”

Based at Knocknamona in Letterkenny, Little Angels is the only school in Donegal that caters for children with moderate, profound or severe learning disabilities. It currently has an enrolment of 133 pupils, ranging from pre-schoolers to 18-year-olds.

Ms O’Donnell’s son Ben is one of nine new entrants, children who have completed the necessary assessments and screenings to deem their suitability for special education and who have been denied a place for the new school year next September.

A new school building constructed near the existing premises was due to open last month, but there has been a last minute hitch which has seen that opening delayed until May or perhaps even the autumn.

“As a group, we’re adamant that we’re not just highlighting this to secure our children's places but also to insist on future planning so other parents don’t have this fight next year,” Patricia O’Donnell said.

READ NEXT: Donegal's first crematorium gets planning permission

“And we want to ensure that places that are secured are maintained and not temporary ones that lapse after a year or two.
“Little Angels is a state-of-the-art school with a fantastic staff brimming with expertise and the ability to help our children. We’ve never had an issue with the school. We just want a place in it!

Meeting with other families from across the country at Wednesday’s protest was a sobering experience for Ms O’Donnell and the other Donegal families.

“Getting a place in Little Angels feels like our biggest fight just now, but we were warned by other families that there will be many more struggles to come for us as parents,” she said.
“At the moment, we feel bruised and battered and broken. Exhausted.

“But there will be no stopping us. There’s a strength within special needs parents that drives us to keep going. We might not sleep for nights on end, but you dust yourself off, get up in the morning and keep going through the day.

“We are a strong group of people and we told Minister Moynihan that we will hold him to account. The general consensus amongst our group is that our children are being treated like second-class citizens, and that’s not acceptable in 2025. As special needs parents, we miss out on so much. We miss out on many of the milestones other parents experience, like your child’s first words.

“We are not going to allow our children to miss out on their first day at school. We want the excitement of buying the schoolbags, getting the uniforms. On top of that, we have buses to apply for, and there’s a mid-April closing date for that.

“We have two children who need specialised seating and standing frames ordered, and those can take months and months to be made and delivered. We can’t wait any longer. We need a decision now.”

Minister of State at the Department of Sport, McConalogue, expressed confidence that the issue of additional places will be resolved.

“Minister Moynihan listened intently to the concerns of parents and assured them that he is doing everything necessary to resolve the issue as soon as possible and ensure that additional school places are provided,” Minister McConalogue said in a statement.

“I will continue to work with Minister Moynihan and other representatives to get an agreed solution and the much-needed certainty regarding school places for children as soon as possible.

“The demand for places at Little Angels has increased significantly in recent years. In 2018, the school had 17 teachers and 73 pupils. Last month, an architect from the Department of Education travelled to the school in Letterkenny at the request of Minister Moynihan to assess the potential options for additional places in September. I am confident there are options available that will deliver a successful outcome.”